When the World is Bored
by TheDragonLover
Summary: This is a collection of pairings written with boredom, but not necessarily without seriousness. Although, some are made just to be funny. Expect to laugh lots! Updated: Saturn/Mars, it was cute to write but took forever to finish.
1. DrewMarley, Sway and Swoon

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for Today: Drew/Marley, BlackRoseshipping**

* * *

The green-haired wonder was, of course, being fabulous one day as he caused multiple women to sway and swoon, as he was certainly a specimen worthy of swaying and swooning. The ultimate Coordinator smiled charmingly and threw roses at them, giving one of them a rash as she was allergic to roses (but she didn't care) and poking another in the eye. Women (and gay men) still swarmed, however, and so any who didn't were outcasts in society. Marley was already at that status, however, and so wasn't affected by the glares the others gave her.

Actually, it was her strangeness and "outcast-y-ness" that caused him to eventually lay eyes on her and frown. Why was she not swarming him, swaying or swooning? Did he not look beautiful today? He had to walk over there and figure out what she found wrong with him that all of the others didn't.

And so he strolled, taking a moment to give some paparazzi a smile as they took his picture, before finally reaching the table – that she had just left while he was being photographed. Cursing under his breath, he followed her to the cash register of the café and asked smoothly, with that obviously handsome voice of his, "Why aren't you getting in line to kiss my feet?"

She took one look at him and grimaced, grabbed her cup of coffee and threw it at him. As he yelped at the scalding liquid, she said simply, "You're a jackass," and walked out, leaving him to not only clean up the mess but pay as well.

"I may be a jackass," he mumbled to himself as he handed the man behind the counter the money, "but I'm a handsome one! Why doesn't she swoon and sway like the others?"

The man at the register raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean "sway and swoon"?"

Drew scowled. "Whatever."

* * *

He found her once more as he conveniently passed the tree she was occupying in the forest (because nobody owns a house in Pokemon unless they're old!), and, being the stalker-guy that he was, climbed into it with her to sit on the branch beside her. Smirking, he asked her, "So, what do you think of me now?"

"The same." She then hopped down off of the branch, landing on her feet as gracefully as a Persian before walking off to leave him there gaping. After a moment, his mouth clicked shut audibly and he fell out of the tree clumsily (really, you'd think being a Coordinator would make him athletic or something, but _noooo_) while trying to follow her.

"What?" He finally caught up to her, panting slightly after climbing/falling out of a tree and running. "Why do you say that?"

She avoided the question by instead asking back, "Shouldn't you be stalking May?"

He scowled and muttered, "I don't stalk her…." He then cleared his throat and said, "But, I'm not a jackass! I may act all cold and aloof on the outside, but on the inside, I'm kind and caring and just wanting love!"

"You read that off of a magazine, didn't you?"

"_Trainers' Weekly,_" he said matter-of-factly, a smug smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes and walked faster, to which he matched her speed and continued, "So, will you go out with me?"

"Why in the hell," she mumbled, "would I go out with you? After seeing how much of a jackass you are, being stalked by you –"

"Because I'd give you fame and fortune."

"Just give me the fortune part, and I'm sold."

He clapped his hands together and grinned. "Excellent!"

* * *

Going to the most expensive French restaurant and ordering all of the pricier foods wasn't what bothered him. Giving comments about how stupid his hair looked and how badly he probably battled didn't make him flinch.

It was the way she looked at him.

Or, rather, the way she _didn't_ look at him.

"Why won't you look at me?" He nearly whined as he glanced around, seeing several gazes locked onto them as he whispered, "People are _staring._"

"So? Let them stare." Her gaze sticking to the menu, she asked, "Can I get another plate of those strange Shellder-like things?"

He sighed and waved a hand at her. "Sure, help yourself…." When she did indeed help herself to most of the "Shellder-like things" in the restaurant, they were eventually kicked out and banned to save their precious stock from her ravenous hunger. He eyed her ridiculously flat stomach and ventured, "How the hell do you pack it all in there?"

"I'm a teenage girl, _sweetie,_" she told him sarcastically, "we're _all_ supposed to look like this. Don't question it."

"Oh," was all he said before he began the walk to her home (that tree) in silence. When they finally reached it and she was about to climb up into its branches, he stopped her by asking, "So, do I get a goodnight kiss?"

She looked at him with a frown. "But…."

"Ah, ah," he wagged a finger at her, "it's not officially a date until I get a kiss! Remember, fortune…."

She scowled and muttered, "Fine." She then leaned up, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and quickly went into the tree before he could try anything else. He grinned at his success, now positive that she liked him at least a little!

From her "bedroom-branch" above him, she called down, "You're still a jackass."

He slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Yeah, I know, I know…."

* * *

"So you see, Gary," the greenhead smirked at the brunette sitting across from him, "I can, indeed, get any girl I want."

The genius frowned and muttered, "I don't think bribing them with money counts…."

Drew narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Shut up! Yes it does!"

Gary rolled his eyes and muttered, "Okay, sheesh, it does. Damn, you're worse than _Ash…._"

The Coordinator frowned. "Don't say that. That's going too far."

"…Yeah, you're right, I take it back – you're _almost_ as bad as Ash."

"Ehh, close enough."

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	2. JamesGary, The Closet

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

Also, I had a request to do James/Gardenia (GrassLoveshipping), but I already had this chapter ready, so...when I finish it, I'll put it up. Alrighty? Thanks! (Plus, I might have no internet access for a long, long time. D: Sorry, guys!)

**Pairing for today: James/Gary, AboutTimeshipping**

_**Warning: Character death! Humorous yet horrifying.**_

* * *

**The Closet**

* * *

The brunette backed away, almost screaming in agony when his back met a brick wall. He cried, "No…no, it can't be true! I thought it was just a rumor!"

"Oh, no," the blue-haired man before him grinned mischievously, "it's not a rumor; I am gay. I don't like Jessie at all, nope." He grimaced. "She's a bitch, anyways. _You,_ on the other hand…."

"No!" Gary tried to make a run for it, but as he grabbed the doorknob James got a hold of his arm. He gripped the metal for his life, though, and as the TR member tried to jerk him from it he said, "I don't like you, man! I _don't!_"

"Oh, well, we'll have to change that!" He giggled creepily as he finally got Gary to lose his grip, and while he dragged him away the brunette's screams were unheard in the huge city where things like this happened all the time.

"No, leave me alone! I'm not gay! I'm not, I tell you! I'm _noooooooooot!_"

* * *

"James?" The redheaded member of the motley trio of misfits poked her head into the room, noticing that said man wasn't in there almost immediately. With the lazy feline curled up on a chair, she stepped inside quietly so as to not wake him up before jumping at a banging noise. "Wh-who's there?" An eerie feeling stirred in her stomach as she heard a softer _thump_, and she slowly edged over to the closet and tried the knob. "Locked?"

"Yes," she jumped and screamed at her teammate's sudden appearance, causing Meowth to fall out of the chair, "it's locked. Can't have him getting out, now, can we?"

"…right…listen, I, uh," Jessie grinned nervously as she backed away from the closet door, afraid to know what – or who – was in there, "I have some, uh, paperwork! Yeah, paperwork! You know…." Before he could ask anymore of it, she ran out of the room along with Meowth, both of them deciding to leave James alone for the time being.

"Hello? Hello?" Gary pounded on the door of the closet he was trapped in. "Is anybody there? Help me!"

"I'm here," James said in a sing-song voice, "and I'll only open the door if you'll come out of the closet!"

"I'm not gay! Please, let me out!" More pounding. "Dammit, come on, I'm claustrophobic! I'm suffocating! _Somebody! Help!_"

* * *

"Hey, Ash," May threw the remote at the snoring teen on the couch, jolting him awake, "listen to this."

He rubbed his eyes and blurrily watched the screen as he heard the news reporter say, "_And that's when police found Gary Oak's body in a closet in a hotel in Goldenrod. Some people think that Team Rocket was behind this heinous crime._"

Ash snorted. "Good riddance, the jackass."

May nodded in agreement, before adding sadly, "I wonder how Drew'll take this, with them being best friends and all…." Then, feeling a vibration, she pulled her cell phone out of her shirt (because you can store anything in there!) and answered with a, "Hello?"

She had to put the phone away from her ear as unmanageable sobbing came from the speaker, and even Pikachu on its perch on the other side of the couch had to cover its ears. The mouse gave an exasperated, "_Piiii…._"

Ash looked at it as if it was crazy. "Well, go outside if you have to do that!"

It only slapped its forehead.

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	3. JamesGardena, Dedication

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: GrassLoveshipping (James and Gardenia)**

Wow, two James-filled chapters in a row! Gasp!

Note: Sorry if this doesn't seem as romantic as it probably should be...I guess I didn't hit the same grooves as I do with other things. D: I'm sorry! At least it's remotely funny, right? Right?!

* * *

**Dedication**

* * *

"No, Carnivine, stop it!"

The purple-haired man tried to pry the Grass-Type from him, but the Pokemon was hugging him too tightly. Jessie rolled her eyes at them and said, "Why don't you just keep it out of its pokeball? Maybe then it'll stop acting so deprived of attention!"

"I don't think dat's gonna help, Jessie," Meowth commented on the sidelines, "'cause then he's gonna be a permanent attachment to his thick head!"

"Come on, guys," James whimpered, "can't you help me?"

"No," the redhead explained, "because me and Meowth are going to go try to steal that Gym Leader's Pokemon while she's out and about! You stay here and keep watch." She beckoned to the cat and walked off, waving behind her. "Toodle-oo!"

"That Jessie…." He sighed. "Doesn't help me for anything!" He looked down at Carnivine still attached to him and asked, "Is it because of my voice? How I look? Or does she like to watch me suffer?"

"Excuse me, do you need help?" He turned and gaped as he recognized the woman who had walked up to him, and it seemed she did as well because she gasped and said, "James! Long time, no see!"

"Uhh…." He didn't know how to respond to that, considering his comrades were off to steal the Pokemon at the Gym. "…Hi, Gardenia! H-how's Cacnea?"

"Oh, it's doing good," she replied (mysteriously, the genders of the Pokemon change every other chapter or something), "and it's got that Drain Punch down pat!"

He grinned, feeling proud of his Pokemon. "That's great!" Then, when Carnivine shifted and gave a jealous huff, he looked down and mumbled, "Oh, this is Carnivine."

"Aww!" Immediately, she was up in its face, examining it closely as she cooed, "It's so adorable! And healthy, too, by the looks of it. You keep it fed regularly?"

He gulped, feeling nervous (because of the other two, of course), and admitted, "More than I feed myself." _Because we never have enough money,_ he silently added, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Wow! Talk about dedication!" She beamed at him, petting Carnivine softly (who was thoroughly enjoying the attention), and then blinked when, a bit late, James' stomach growled loudly. As he flushed at the embarrassing sound, she gasped and said, "Maybe too dedicated! You know what? How about you come with me and we can get something to eat?"

"Uhh," he stuttered, "I don't know, I –"

"Come on!" She grabbed his arm and told him matter-of-factly, "I won't take no for an answer!" She then began to drag him and Carnivine along, taking a moment to whistle loudly into the trees around them. After a moment, the bushes rustled, and a small, prickly Pokemon popped out of them with a happy cry. Then, taking a moment to realize its "mentor" had company, its eyes lit up as it saw James (and Carnivine, but it didn't pay attention to it) and immediately tackled him from Gardenia's grip.

"Yeowch!"

"Oh, Cacnea!" She shook her finger at it, and it eventually jumped off of James to let her help him up. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised! It's really missed you!"

"Oh," he chuckled anxiously, wincing, "I've missed it, too." Carnivine tightened its grip around him at that comment in jealousy, but he chose to ignore it as he reluctantly followed Gardenia to a nearby buffet. As his stomach growled again, though, his pace became quicker and a grin appeared on his face at the thought of eating a real meal for once. _I guess this can count as helping Jessie and Meowth,_ he coaxed himself to believe, _since I'm "distracting" her._ He glanced at the woman before him, humming a cheerful tune to herself, and wondered how long he would be able to hang out with her before he had to leave with the other two.

_If they can find me, that is…. _Remembering that he was supposed to stay and be lookout, he mentally chuckled nervously at the though of how angry they would be. _Oh, well, the free food's worth it, at least._

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	4. PikachuMeowth, Unisex Rivals

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: Pikachu/Meowth, Kat&Mouseshipping/Krazyshipping (which is close enough to Ash's Pikachu/TR's Meowth, right?)  
**

_**Warning: I have attempted to write how Meowth talks. That is warning enough.**_

* * *

**Unisex Rival**

* * *

"_Pika!_" The Electric Mouse Pokemon banged against the glass walls of its prison, shouting, "_Pika pipi pikachu!_"

"Oh, no!" Meowth pointed at it accusingly. "You ain't usin' dat old "gotta use da bathroom" trick on me! I ain't dat dumb!"

"_Pikapi._"

"Am not!"

"_Pika!_"

"Not!"

"_Pi pikachu!_"

"Da two morons are off dealin' with da twerps," he told it proudly, "so it's just you and me for a while!"

"_Pi, pika!_" It threw its paws into the air exasperatedly before sitting down and crossing its arms, telling him, "_Pipi pika pipika!_"

"Hey, I'm not _dat_ bad!"

"_Pika pi pikachu,_" it mocked his voice.

As it fell on its side laughing at him, his face grew red with anger and he stood up to tell it, "Don't be mockin' my voice! I sound perfectly fine!" When it continued laughing, he growled and mumbled, "Stupid twerp-Pokemon, doesn't know its manners…."

Pikachu immediately stopped laughing and sat up, growling, "_Pikapi?_"

He opened an eye to glance at it, saying, "What? What's da problem?"

"_Pi. Pi pikapi._"

"…Eh?" He got up from his spot and walked over to the container, examining it closely. "What do you mean, ""it" is the problem"? You don't like bein' called an it?" When it shook its head furiously, Meowth frowned and asked, "Den what _do_ I call ya?"

"_Pi._"

"_She?!_" He took a step back, flabbergasted at the fact that the rodent they had been trying to capture this entire time was a female. "You're kiddin', right?"

"_Pikapi cha?!_" "Her" cheeks sparked with electricity, and her temper was obvious by the way her voice rose sharply at the end of her sentence.

"Well, I just – you were –" He stopped to think of his words, something he wasn't used to doing. "It just never occurred to me dat you were a girl. You just seemed kinda…unisex or somethin'."

Not knowing whether to be offended or not, she sat back down and crossed her paws, asking, "_Pipi pikachu?_"

"Well, not _too_ surprising." He scratched the back of his head nervously, suddenly embarrassed that he hadn't noticed it before. "Just a bit strange, I guess. I always dought of us as rivals of sorts…and, I dunno, havin' a girl rival seems strange."

"_Pi pika, chu?_"

He repeated in confusion, ""What are we, den?"" When she nodded, he thought hard about it, not really sure what to call them now. After a while, he mumbled, "I…dunno. Opponents? Enemies? Friends?" He shrugged. "You tell me!"

She looked up at the ceiling of the room they sat in, seeming to think over something. She eventually looked back down and said, "_Pikachu, pikapi. Pika?_"

"_Gender isn't that big of an issue, I don't think. Is it to you?" _"Well…." His face grew red for some reason at the thought, and he quickly told her, "Not too much! It's just gonna be…weird, thinkin' of you with da twerps and bein' all…female." She rolled her eyes at his choice of words, and he scowled at her. "Hey, I'm not known for my speeches!"

"_Pikachu, pika? Pipi pikachu?_"

"No, I have _no _confidence in da morons," he replied, waving a paw at the door they would walk in when they came back. "Dey're…well, morons! Now, if _I_ was in charge of dis operation, tings would be _much_ different!"

"_Pi, pika?_"

"Yeah, really!" He looked at her doubtful face and asked, "What, you don't believe me? I'm da best cat der is!" He put his paws on his hips and puffed out his chest proudly, making Pikachu giggle, and for some reason he felt his face grow warm at the thought of making her laugh. _It wouldn't be like dis if I was still in da dark!_

"So…." He flopped down on the ground beside the container, twiddling his paws nervously as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "Do ya wanna hear _my_ plan?"

"_Pika._" She shrugged, a small smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. "_Pikapi?_"

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	5. GruntDawn, Remember

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

Actually…this one's more serious. :O No wai! YES WAI. But, yeah, I actually kinda like this pairing, teehee. I just put it in here because I was, indeed, bored when I thought of it. Yay for boredom! (and brownie points or some type of prize for whoever can catch the song I mentioned to in here!)

Also, regarding a review for the previous chapter (it's anonymous, so I can't reply to it normally), I wrote Ash's Pikachu as a female because: 1. it's fanfiction, so I can, 2. I like the idea of it as a girl, and 3. the gender-differences are new, so obviously it wasn't around when they were made, so _technically_ it could be either a boy or a girl (and have you seen any gender-differences _ever_ in the anime? Seriously, people). Sorry, I just had to say something so that reviewer would understand where I was coming from. (No, I'm _not_ alternating between straight and homosexual pairings. Sorry, but that question just sounded rude to me.)

**Pairing for today: That Galactic Grunt that is always asking if you remember him/female main Platinum character (Dawn? Platinum? Platina? I have no clue.)**

* * *

**Remember**

* * *

All was quiet in the Galactic Headquarters.

He walked through the hallways, sighing in shame. "I can't believe I got lost in here again…." After he had run away from that girl who kept beating him, he had decided to come back and try to redeem himself. _And to get Clefairy back,_ he added silently, still sour that it had gotten taken from him. It was his partner and, although it wasn't allowed, his friend, and he would never forgive that girl for getting it seized.

After he wandered around for a bit, lost ("Why couldn't they give us grunts a _map_ or something? Are we just not that important?"), he found himself at the nap room –

And an unexpected surprise.

He froze in his tracks as he noticed the blue-haired girl clothed in a familiar red dress (oddly reminding him of a song) and that white hat snug on her head as she slept on one of the beds in HQ. Completely baffled at the sight, he stood at the doorway just staring at her slumber with his jaw left open, just waiting to catch flies. He didn't know what to do – after all, when were _you_ ever prepared to find your enemy sleeping in one of your beds?

Hearing footsteps down the hall, he was suddenly compelled to step into the room and close the door behind him, pressing the button for the "occupied" sign to blink on. He held his breath as he heard the footsteps come closer, closer, stop right in front of the door…and then leave. Giving a sigh and running his hand through his hair, he turned back to the beds and walked over beside the one where the girl slept, looking down at her calm face.

He crossed his arms and scowled. _Why should she be all comfy and confident in her battling ability? She's not so smart!_ He glanced at the white bag beside the bed and smirked before kneeling down to rummage through her things – finding a jackpot! _TMs, HMs, pokeballs…this girl's got everything! And I bet it's all worth a lot, too._ He found some Moomoo Milk and took a glass, popping the cap off to drink out of it as he found a book inside of the bag.

"Hm?" He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, his back against the bed she slept on and the Moomoo Milk beside him, as he leafed through the pages. _It looks like a journal of sorts…._ He scanned the pages, finding her pretty handwriting a bit annoying (_At least it isn't ridiculously tiny like Commander Mars'…._), and was overwhelmingly curious to know what she had written about him. _Aha! Here it is…._ He read through the entry, scowling at how she gloated about her victory and sounded so naïve trying to figure out what he was after. _And she made fun of my outfit! How dare she…._

Then, reading on as he took another sip from the jug, he began to get immersed in every major victory she had, every Pokemon she caught, and every friend she made on her journey before arriving at Headquarters. _Wow…she's been through a lot. And she beat the Commanders?! Whoa, that's amazing!_ Again and again he was mentioned, and each time made his stomach curl with how she described him and his sometimes confused expression.

"_Does he even know what he's fighting for? Does anyone?_"

A stone plopped in his stomach as he finally arrived to the latest entry, where she of course mentioned meeting him out front.

"_I felt sort of bad,_" she wrote, "_that I had been the cause of him losing his Clefairy. I mean, if I lost any of _my_ friends, I know that I'd hate the person responsible! If I could do something about it, I could…but, I don't know if he'd be thankful or not. And really, I suppose he'd get it back eventually…I hope. I still feel guilty, though!_"

He then put down the book and stared at the bed beside hers, taking it all in as he forgot about the Milk he had left half-drank. _Why does she care about me?_ A sour frown came across his face. _I never bother to worry about _her_…so, why does _she_ bother?_

_Maybe because she's got a heart,_ a voice in his head replied.

He scowled at the thought. _No, she's just a selfish girl who runs around and beats up Commanders for fun._

_And wants you to have your Clefairy._

_You know what?_ He tried to somehow glare at the voice. _Shut up! I don't need you harping on me when Commander Saturn's already done it!_ He then sighed, realizing he was really crazy, and set the journal back into her bag to rest his head against the bed and close his eyes. He needed to think for a while about what he was really fighting for.

* * *

Slowly, the girl sat up and stretched her arms out, giving a big overdramatic yawn as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. "Wow! I slept like a rock!" Ready to go and kick more Galactic butt, she jumped off of the bed to pick up her bag when she heard a _clink _and noticed two things: An empty Moomoo Milk jug she had kicked and a note pinned to it. Picking it up and examining it, she noticed her bag seemed a bit ruffled and grew pale at the thought of someone rummaging through her stuff. It quickly dissipated, though, when she found some money under it and read the note.

"_You need to be more careful where you sleep, stupid girl. Your stuff is all in your bag. Don't expect me to help you next time, though! Remember me, alright?_"

After a moment of thinking, realization hit her and made her smile as she folded the note and put it in her pocket. _Alright,_ she thought as she got her stuff and got ready to go, _I'll remember you. I promise._

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	6. MayAsh's Sceptile,Roses Aren't So Pretty

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

And for the anon. reviewer I mentioned last chapter, I'm sorry to have sounded so torked and all. I just felt a bit offended, and I apologize for snapping back so harshly. Besides, an opinion is an opinion and should never offend anyone, so I was offended by nothing! *hugs reviewer* And there are gender differences after all? Well, then, I'm incredibly blind, and sorry. Plus, I had forgotten about Dawn's Buneary…although, the thought of a male Buneary is now making me laugh. XD *mauled*

…Come on, it'd be funny, right? *mauled again*

**Pairing for today: May/Ash's Sceptile, HalfRibbonshipping**

* * *

**Roses Aren't So Pretty**

* * *

"_Hmph._" The giant green lizard crossed his arms as he glared at the emerald-haired boy walking away from May. "_I should Bullet Seed him to oblivion, but I can't._"

"_Ugh,_" Pikachu rolled her eyes, "_here we go again!_"

"_No, seriously!_" He waved a claw at Drew and shouted, "_He's got no talent, no manners, and he keeps on pulling her strings like a freakin' marionette!_"

Swellow leaned over to the yellow mouse and asked her, "_What the hell is a "marionette"?_"

"_Like a puppet – and why does everyone ask _me_ these questions?_"

"_Because you're level infinity or some shit like that._"

"_Oh._"

Sceptile turned to them and growled, "_Are you guys listening to me?_"

Swellow replied, "_Nope!_" When it looked like he was about to punch him, though, he gulped and added, "_But now we are!_" Pikachu just walked away, but the bird stayed nice and still as he chuckled nervously at the angry lizard. "_Fire away, buddy!_"

"_Did someone say "fire"?_"

Sceptile sighed as May's Combusken walked over, and he told her, "_No, not like the burning kind._"

"_Damn!_" Snapped her feathers (fingers?), she then looked at them curiously and asked, "_So, what kind of fire _are_ you guys talking about?_"

"_The kind that is equal to raging and roaring hatred towards someone._"

Combusken grinned. "_I like the sound of that! I'm listening._"

"_Drew keeps on putting May down and making her feel like shit,_" he went on, waving his arms wildly, "_and then he goes and pretends to be nice and give her roses so that she doesn't hate him anymore!_" He stomped his foot angrily and grumbled, "_Roses aren't so pretty, those stupid, ugly, wrinkly looking things…._"

"_What, and leaves are?_" She grinned at his glare before advising him, "_Just don't get so mad over something stupid like this, it's not like she likes him or –_"

"_May got another rose!_" Suddenly, the little puffball that was Eevee popped up and gave them a grin, his little tail wagging back and forth at an alarming rate. "_She's been saving them and saving them! This should be her forty-seventh!_"

As he bounded off happily, Sceptile pointedly glared at the bird standing before him, and she raised her wings and said, "_What, it's not my fault I don't look through her stuff! It's just a little crush, she'll get over it –_"

"_No, she won't._" He sighed and sat down on the grass, now looking glum as the fire (Combusken, get off! Not _that_ kind of fire!) in his eyes died rather quickly. "_And she won't ever like me, either. Because I'm a Pokemon, and he's a human._"

Combusken frowned and walked over to him, patting him on the back reassuringly. "_Come on, that's not the Sceptile I know! Don't give up!_" When he only grunted, she rolled her wings into fists and shouted, "_Come on, grow a spine! Or stem, or whatever the hell you have. All you have to do is gain control over your attacks again, and then you can blast him out of the picture and impress May!_"

After a moment, he looked at her with a frown. "_You really think that'll work?_"

"_Hell yeah!_"

"_Then you're an idiot._" He stood up and grinned. "_But, I'll try._"

"_Yeah!_" She punched the air, telling him, "_**There's**__ my buddy, Sceptile! Just waiting to kick ass and eat Cheri berries._" She lowered her voice to mumble darkly, "_And he's all out of Cheri berries!_"

He rolled his eyes at her. "_I don't like Cheri berries._"

"_Even worse!_"


	7. BarryDawn, What Fourth Wall?

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: Barry/Dawn, Twinleafshipping/Futabashipping**

_**Warning: The fourth wall shall be broken in this story! You have been warned!**_

* * *

**What Fourth Wall?**

* * *

"Hey, Dawn!"

The girl stopped and sighed, ignoring the confused looks of her companions before turning around and smiling at the blonde rushing up to them. "Hey, Barry!" She sounded a bit nervous for some reason. "What's up?"

"Well, I –" _Wham!_ He ran into her, almost knocking her off of her feet. "Sorry, it's a force of habit. Anyways, I was wondering if I could hang out with you guys for a bit!"

"Really?" Ash piped in before Dawn could say a thing, saying, "That's super special awesome!"

"Don't steal jokes from people on Youtube," Brock said as he pulled him back a bit, "and let the two talk!"

"Huh?" He looked at them as they conversed, both laughing at something Barry had said. "Why?"

"Can't you see?" When he just blinked at him, Brock messaged his temples and mumbled, "Wow, Misty wasn't kidding, you _are_ dense."

"Hey, I'm the main character, I'm supposed to be. Anyways," he pointed at them, "what am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Look, just watch them for a bit."

"Uhh, okay!" And so he did.

"Wow, Barry," Dawn was saying as the other two tuned in to their conversation, "I didn't know you ran into _everybody!_" Mostly to herself, she muttered, "I thought it was just me…."

"Yeah," he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment (which was totally Ash's thing, couldn't the writer think of something else for him or were they too lazy?). "So, I was wondering if I could come with you guys until _those_ guys get off of my case."

Ash broke in, "You mean like a gang?"

Brock smacked his forehead as the other two stared at him naively, and then the capped wonder realized his mistake and mumbled, "Oh yeah, 4Kids wouldn't allow gangs in an episode…hey, but what about that biker gang? Man, they make no sense. And aren't we in a fanfic, anyways?"

"Yeah," Dawn nodded, face a bit red after Ash's embarrassing outburst, " I – we don't mind." She then looked at the ground nervously, eyeing her Piplup who she had all but ignored for the past five minutes. The penguin tugged at her foot, but she ignored it(?) to instead look back up at Barry.

He nodded, face also red but for unknown reasons. "Alright! Cool!" His finger was tapping rapidly on his side. "Sorry, that's a habit, too. Now, let's go!" He ran ahead of the group, and Dawn shook her head and giggled at him before walking up to Brock and Ash so they could all follow him together.

"Shouldn't we run after him?" Ash asked curiously, watching the blonde run farther and farther.

"He'll realize we aren't with him soon enough," she replied calmly, but she seemed to be spacing out as she almost tripped over Piplup. It didn't like that at all, as she learned by it Pecking her leg.

"I don't get it," Ash whispered to Brock, who promptly sighed and pointed at Barry who had stopped running ahead of them to impatiently jog in place.

"See that? He's waiting for us! You know how impatient he is."

"So…he's polite?"

"No, Ash, he's not doing it for just us."

"But you just said –"

"It's called bad script writing, look it up." He paused as they finally reached the blonde, and they both watched him grin at Dawn and offer to carry them all if it would make them go faster.

"Barry!" She shook her head and sighed, telling him, "You need to learn to be more patient!"

"But…." He frowned. "I waited for you guys!"

"And then you want to take off again!"

Brock looked at Ash and asked, "Sound familiar?"

He tilted his head. "…no, I don't remember anyone talking about carrying people or being –"

"No, I mean the – their fighting, who else argues and fights?"

"Hm, May and Harley, May and Max, me and Dawn at times, you and Dawn at me, me and Gary…."

"Okay, remember the first season?"

"…Oh, right, me and Misty! …I don't see your point."

"You know how everyone always thinks that you guys had the hots for each other?"

"Yeah…." A pause. "What about it?"

Brock smacked his forehead again. "It's getting so hard not to curse…okay, look," he pointed a finger at them, "they're arguing. You and Misty argue. People ship you and Misty. So…."

"…Someone's shipping her and Barry?"

"Exactly!"

"…Breaking the fourth wall is scary. What if it falls down and kills us all?"

"Maybe we'll learn from it," he said as he looked at the reader.

_Dramatic pause!_

He repeated, "Maybe we'll learn."


	8. Ash'sPikaDawn'sPiplup,TooManyQuestions

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

Also note that I've already written up to Chapter 9 of this story, so I'm uploading all of the ones that are finished already before inserting the suggested ones. Just be patient, folks!

**Pairing for today: Ash's Pikachu/Dawn's Piplup, LightningPearlshipping (Yes, I understand that Piplup is probably a girl and Pikachu is probably a guy, but you know what? I don't care. This seems cuter this way.)  
**

**

* * *

**

**Too Many Questions**

* * *

"_Hey, Pikachu!_"

The Electric Mouse turned to the (now specifically gendered because this fic's based on Pokemon) Piplup who was walking up to her. "_Yeah, Piplup?_"

"_How come we can completely understand each other, but humans can only hear us say our names?_"

"_Uhhh…._" Her ear twitched. "_I dunno. Maybe the Legendaries are tricking them into thinking we're stupid?_"

"_Heh, probably!_" He laughed and grinned (even though he has a beak and technically that isn't possible), laughing, "_What if they started to say their names? "Dawn dawn, daaaawn!"_"

Pikachu laughed with him, mocking her trainer, "_"Ashashash, ashhhhhhh ashy ash!"_" They both rolled on the ground, making fun of the humans, while said trainers looked at them funny.

"What are they laughing about," Dawn asked with a frown, and Ash just shook his head and shrugged.

"I dunno, but it's pretty funny that they keep saying their names. _"Pika, pikapi pikachu!"_"

"Ash!" She smacked him with her bag and scolded, "That's not nice! Your Pokemon would never do that to you!"

"Yeah, well," he replied, "after a few years of never growing up and always hearing the same words over and over again, eventually you begin to hear how funny it sounds."

It was quiet for a moment, in which the two trainers looked down at their Pokemon to find them staring up at them, but then Pikachu and Piplup started to laugh again at the looks on their faces.

"_They're such idiots!_" Pikachu held her gut and almost fell flat on her face.

"_I know!_" The penguin nodded, already on his back as he guffawed (seriously, who guffaws?) at his trainer.

Finally, after a long time of giggling, the two calmed down and looked up at the sky, silence falling between them. However, Piplup's curiosity chased it away quickly.

"_Why isn't your tail all heart-shaped at the end like other female Pikachu?_"

Her ear twitched again, probably some type of signal that she was thinking hard. "_Hm…maybe it's because I come from Kanto while those live in Sinnoh._"

"_Or maybe it's because the creators hadn't thought of it yet._"

"_Hey, we're not supposed to be breaking the fourth wall this chapter._"

"_Oh, yeah…._" A pause. "_Hey, Pikachu?_"

She sighed, figuring that this would keep going until he was satisfied. "_Yes?_"

"_Would it be really weird if you and I were paired up?_"

"…_uhh…._" Her ear, of course, twitched, and she was thankful her cheeks were already red. "_Well, I don't know much about humans, but…I think they thought about that already._"

"_Really?_"

"_Yeah._"

"_Huh._"

Another pause.

"…_What made you ask that?_"

He looked away, hiding his red face. "_N-no reason._"

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')


	9. MarleyRiley, It's the Hat

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: Riley/Marley, Kamaciteshipping**

**And, because this is a series devoted to randomness, here is a random super-long adventure! Yay!**

_**Warning: There hasn't been any bad language for a while, so I just felt I should warn you because there's some in here. Oh, and a bit of breaking the fourth wall (chipping it, really, by pointing out some things authors love to do for their favorite pairings). Also, if there are any "he" things when it's referring to Lucario, it's supposed to be "it" – I kept on typing "he" on accident because I imagine it as a guy.**_

* * *

**It's the Hat**

* * *

Marley was silent as she surveyed the inside of the cave on Iron Island, pokeball in hand in case she got ambushed by those damn Golbat. She hated those things, they needed to die a fiery, painful death–which was why she had her Arcanine with her. She was ready to kick ass and takes names–if she could figure out where she was. She had sort of walked in arrogantly, and it didn't take too long before she realized she had lost sight of the entrance and couldn't find her way back.

. . . _shit._

"Hey."

Turning to see who had addressed her so bluntly, she was stunned to find a man there–well, not because he was there, but because . . . actually, she didn't know. He wore a blue coat over a black turtleneck, a strange necklace, black pants, and had an extraordinary blue hat that resembled some Pokemon she had read about before. She was just so surprised, her jaw nearly fell open, but she kept her cool and looked at him with a faked bored expression on her face. "What do you want?"

Seeing her sour attitude, he put a hand on his hip (and somehow looked more manly doing so) and said, "I was wondering if you were lost, and if you needed help." He didn't have an annoyed look, instead staring calmly at her for an answer. A Lucario she hadn't noticed before stood beside him protectively (its ears and color scheme did bear a resemblance to the guy's hat, confirming her suspicions that this guy was obsessed), arms crossed as it openly glared at her. It wasn't as kind as its trainer.

"I'm not lost." _I just don't know where I am._ "And I don't need help."

Lucario scoffed, but the man smiled and chuckled at her response. "Alright," he told her, waving a hand at the cave surrounding them, "go ahead. Explore to your heart's delight. Come on, Lucario," he then said to his Pokemon, and the two walked off, although it looked back at her once with an accusing glower. She ignored it, hand still on her pokeball, and instead decided to take the man up on his offer to investigate the cave.

(_The End! *mauled* Jk, jk, that'd be a horrible time to end it._)

So, she walked further into the cave. Which was the second stupidest thing she had done since walking into the place.

On and on she walked, occasionally dealing with exploding Graveler and temperamental Steelix, eventually frying every Golbat she could see (whether it was attacking her or not) as she gritted her teeth, her head throbbing with a migraine induced by stress. When she came across a trio of Steelix looming over her ferociously, she stepped in front of her Arcanine to glare at them, surprising the metal-coated snakes (as well as the canine) as they stared down at her expectantly.

"_Alright_, you bunch of sorry excuses for Pokemon." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm tired, hungry, cold, lost, and _pissed off,_ so either you get out of my way, or I _burn your asses__** straight **__to Mt. Coronet._"

They all looked at each other, frowns on their faces as if they weren't sure what to do, but echoing laughter caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up straight and her forehead to sweat nervously as the man from before stepped out of the shadows. _Man, this guy is almost as stalker-y as Drew._ She glared at Lucario as it returned it wholeheartedly, but the man interrupted their staring contest to remark, "You're very impressive, for a little girl."

She narrowed her eyes at him. ""Little girl"?"

He waved a hand as if to dismiss his comment. "I'm sorry, that was a bit rude." He then smiled warmly at her. "But, I think you have a good amount of spunk in you . . . my name's Riley."

_And I care why?_ "I'm Marley," she grumbled, glancing angrily at the Pokemon that refused to stop glaring at her, but she was surprised when he turned to it and shook his head sternly. It gave him an exasperated grunt, but when Riley disciplined it with silence it sighed and crossed its arms to scowl at the distant cave wall. For some reason, the sight made her smile, but when he looked back she quickly covered her mouth with a hand and pretended to cough, earning herself a strange look from him and Arcanine.

"So, you _were_ lost after all. And a lot of other things as well." When she looked away to avoid his gaze, he continued, "I have some food with me, and I know this place like the back of my hand. If you would like, I'd–"

"Alright, I'll take your damn offer," she snapped at him, angry that she had been caught in need, and was infuriated even more when he smiled at her temper. "Will you leave me in peace after that?"

"Of course," he told her calmly, to which Lucario grunted something which was probably something like "you better, because _I_ don't want to deal with her".

* * *

After eating some sandwiches in silence and seeing the occasional Golbat fly by (it took a lot of convincing from both Riley and Arcanine to not burn them), Riley asked her, "So, Marley, what are you doing here? You and your Arcanine seem experienced, so I don't think it's for training."

_Hm, sharp eye. But flattery will get you nowhere._ She stared at a distant rock and told him, "I'd heard there was a trainer here who was so strong that he was offered a job as a Gym Leader, but he turned it down. He also could use some sort of mysterious powers, but I'm skeptical on that regard."

He chuckled, catching her attention. "Well, I haven't seen this trainer or his "powers". Sounds unbelievable." When Lucario scoffed, he glanced at him momentarily before turning his gave back to Marley. "So, you wanted to meet this guy?"

"Yes," she grumbled and crossed her arms sourly, "but so far all we've found is a bunch of annoying Pokemon and an even more annoying man." She glanced up to see that he was indeed smiling while his Pokemon glared at her, but she ignored them both as she continued, "I'm starting to doubt this guy even exists, "powers" or not."

"I don't know," he commented with a grin, "things happen when you least expect it."

"Yeah," she scoffed, "okay, Mr. Predict-the-Future, tell me if I'll meet him."

"I can't predict the future," he said as he stood up and cleaned up his things, "but I'm sure you'll meet him eventually; this place isn't _that_ big."

_I sure hope so, and soon. I can't stand being around this guy._ She looked up at him, feeling that strange emotion again, but because she was unable to place it she instead stood up and waited silently for him to finish. When it looked like he was done, she asked, "Can you get me out of here now?"

"Of course," he smiled kindly. That smile was getting her mad, because that stupid unnamable emotion kept popping up when he did it and infuriated her because she couldn't figure it out. Growing up in a rich family (and yet she lives in a tree–fanfics make so much sense, don't they?) as an only child meant she didn't get to socialize a lot and find out what all of these strange people-related things meant.

She huffed, "Good." Motioning for Arcanine to follow her, she in turn walked behind Riley and Lucario as he led their journey through Iron Island's massive cave. While they trekked among the rocks, she was left alone in her thoughts as silence dominated around them.

_Why's he here, anyways?_ She stared at the back of his blue coat, mulling over his strange kindness and his protective Pokemon. _Like me, he seems too experienced to simply be training here. He walks around as if he owns the place; he's never afraid, even when those Steelix were staring down at him. Actually . . ._ She tilted her head as she realized something. _Those three kind of liked him, as if they were friends. Is he here often? That just makes me more curious._ She thought about it a bit more. _. . .It's definitely the hat._

_And you know, he's very suspicious for a guy that keeps trying to help me. What does he want? Does he get a gift for helping every trainer he finds lost in this place?_ Still sour because she had needed help, Marley resorted to glaring at her feet as they continued walking on through the cave.

When a breeze whipped by them (what the hell, why's there wind in a cave?) and a pair of fighting Golbat rushed past them (oh, never mind), she found goosebumps crawling on her skin and that she shivered in the cold (oh God, here it comes). Of course, because Riley had that awesome hat and could detect those sorts of things (or because the writer needed a plot device), he turned around and asked her, "Are you cold?"

She shook her head, but of course she was cold! She was shivering and had her arms around herself, so it's not like it wasn't obvious already. So, because he was such a gentleman, he asked her, "Would you like my coat?"

"No." (Dammit, Marley, I go to all the trouble to do this, and you say "no"? Do it, woman!)

"Please, I insist." (Ah, good ol' Riley saves the day!)

She scoffed and grumbled, "Fine." (Thank you.) And, because all skinny guys who wear awesome hats and run around with Pokemon are in top physical shape, she had to look away to at least slightly hide her flushed face when he took the coat off and was only in the form-fitting short-sleeve black turtleneck (if it was long-sleeved, he would die of heatstroke). Sticking her tongue out at Lucario's shocked face when Riley wasn't looking, she secretly enjoyed the warmth of the coat as she mumbled regrettably, "Thanks . . . again."

"You're welcome." And again, the damn smile. Did he know that it pissed her off? Was he enjoying it? She couldn't tell.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the cave walls and caused rubble to fall from the ceiling, and Riley quickly pulled her out of the way right before a rock fell and landed with a heavy _thud_ where she had been. As she stood in shock (still wearing his jacket), he looked around them and asked, "What's going on, Lucario?"

The biped canine closed its eyes as the dangling fur on its head (dreadlocks?) began to float, and after a moment of tension it turned its head in a direction and growled. Riley's face seemed to harden seriously, and he cursed for the first time since Marley had met him (which was about an hour and a half ago). "Is it Team Galactic again?"

_I've heard of them,_ she mused to herself as she watched Lucario shake its head, and while he seemed to try to think of what to do she repeated, "Again?" He looked at her, making some important decision in his mind, and then turned to give his Pokemon a silent order. As it ran off somewhere, she asked him, "Where's it going? What's going on?"

"It's dangerous," he told her instead, "so I want you to stay here and wait for me to come back."

"What?!" She looked at him incredibly, shouting, "How the hell am I supposed to stand and dodge rocks while you go and be a hero? No, I'm going with you!" _I'll get lost again otherwise. . . not that I was lost in the first place._ Yeah, that's what she told herself.

He looked at her, examining her defiant figure, and then gave a small smile. "Alright," he told her calmly even as rocks fell all around them, "you can come. But stay close."

"Whatever." She returned Arcanine because it was an easier target to hit and ran after Riley, being careful to follow his movements exactly to avoid the falling boulders. Lucario had already gone far ahead, but it seemed he could follow his Pokemon's path directly without stopping to examine where he could have gone. They soon arrived at a lift where Lucario waited for them, and it pointed over the edge into the dark abyss with its eyes closed, grunting urgently.

Marley looked over the side of the rail-deprived lift and shivered at the distance to the ground. She wasn't exactly scared of heights, but this thing had no protection whatsoever! What if one of them fell?

"Whatever's down there . . ." Riley interrupted her thoughts as he stared down at the blurry shapes on the ground, a frown on his face that seemed out of the ordinary after hanging out with him for this long. "It's the cause of those explosions."

_Well, duh! I didn't need Lassie to bark at me to figure _that_ out!_ She rolled her eyes as he activated the lift, but when it actually started to move she gasped and grabbed Lucario for support, which earned her a glare from it and a laugh from Riley. She glared at him but continued to hold it, too anxious of the lift's stability to care about him being entertained by her misfortune. It was only when they finally reached the bottom and their ride was completely still that she let go and shakily walked off, glaring at the hand he offered to steady her and marching ahead to find the source of the explosion.

They finally arrived at the cause, and Marley asked incredibly, "What _is_ that?" Before them was a huge wall lined with explosives, and a small tunnel that a tiny Pokemon could fit through was surrounded by men in white lab coats with clipboards and complicated measuring instruments. Irritated, she stomped up to their operation despite Riley's protests, violently turned the man around and asked harshly, "What is the meaning of this?! This place is going to cave in if you continue that!"

"No it's not," the man told her matter-of-factly, adjusting his glasses nervously as she glared at him. "Y-you see, these explosives are being used to open up a bigger tunnel so that we can examine the area behind it." He pointed a pen over at the wall and explained, "We've had reports that a rare Pokemon is hiding in there, and we plan to get in there to see if that's really true."

"So you're going to barge into its home?" She scowled at them all, shouting, "What kind of cruel people are you?! Using _explosives?_"

"It's in the name of science," he defended, "and we won't harm it! W-we promise!"

"I'm sorry, sir." Riley finally stepped up to them, calmly telling him, "I'd like you to please get away from that wall and whatever resides inside of it." When they didn't move, his face turned more serious as he now commanded, "Now."

Another braver scientist stepped forward and sneered, "And who are you to tell us what to do?"

Instead of accepting the man's bait, Riley simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper, unfolding it for them to see. "As you can see," he then told them all, "I own this island. So, as its owner, I would like to again ask you to please get off of it."

"B-but . . . but this place was released to the public!"

"And I can close it to the public or any specific organizations when I so please." He folded the deed back up and ignored their stunned faces, instead turning to Marley and asking her, "Can you give these men some motivation, please?"

She smiled mischievously, a sight that didn't reassure the scientists around them. "My pleasure." She then let out Arcanine and instructed it, "Have fun, now."

Seeing what was going on, the canine grinned and barked before turning around and facing the scared men. Giving a doggy grin, it let out a Flamethrower and sprayed it in the air above their heads, causing the men to finally return to their senses and run for their lives. It kept it up until they were all gone, and then it stopped to turn back to her and lick her hand. She smiled and patted it on the head before returning it, mumbling, "Good dog."

She turned around to see Riley and surprisingly Lucario staring at her with smiles on their faces, and she raised an eyebrow and asked, "What? What is it?"

"Oh, nothing," he replied, face friendly and lighthearted. "It was just fun to watch your Arcanine go at it like that." He nodded at the pokeball in her hand and commented, "It must really like you to not question your instructions at all."

For some reason, she found herself embarrassed by this, and she quickly turned around and cleared her throat, saying, "Yeah, well, I don't abuse Pokemon like those scientists." She tried to ignore his Pokemon's snickering, but when she felt a firm hand on her shoulder she looked up at Riley beside her.

His face was kind and supportive, and he nodded to her in agreement as he added, "And thank heavens you don't." For some reason, his warm gaze made her blush, and she quickly looked at the ground despite knowing he had already seen it. As he chuckled and the hand slid off, he turned to Lucario and asked it, "Can you check to make sure whatever it was behind that wall isn't harmed?"

It nodded and closed its eyes again, and Marley finally asked him, "What is it doing?"

"It's using the Aura to examine the wall," he explained. When she looked at him curiously, he explained, "Lucario can use the Aura to see things that your eyes can't normally see–such as through solid rock. It's something it's had to practice at for a long time, but it's learned to master and control it now. Its ancestry has been full of Aura Guardians like it; it has a very proud lineage."

"Wow . . ." Impressed, she had a sudden thought and looked at him with a frown. "How do you know all of that?"

He smiled at her suspicions. "I guess I'm just smart." Then, before she could ask him anything else, Lucario grunted and drew both of their attentions as it opened its eyes in shock. "What is it? What did you see?"

It shook its head and pointed at the wall, giving a desperate cry. It seemed like it really wanted to get in there.

"You're too big, Lucario." Riley shook his head, saying jokingly, "If you'd stop snacking on sweets all of the time, then maybe–" Suddenly, they all felt the ground rumbling, and Lucario smacked its forehead before pointing at the wall again, making a more urgent grunt. His trainer's eyes widened, and he mumbled, "Or maybe you were warning us."

Marley whipped around and stared at the wall, watching as it trembled and surged with some type of blue power. It definitely wasn't the explosives, but it was just as dangerous because rocks began to tumble from the ceiling. She could see them falling towards her, but for some reason she couldn't run (just like every other damsel in distress in the world, even though she was such a determined woman a moment ago) and instead raised her arms over her head for some type of pitiful protection (from what, _dust?_).

"Nnh!"

His voice scared her out of her wits because it was suddenly right above her head (and sounded like it was in pain), and she snapped her head up to see an incredible sight; Riley stood over her protectively as he held up his hands against the onslaught of rubble. Not only that, but his palms were glowing and some type of magnificent power radiated from him, the same kind that radiated from Lucario whenever it was using the Aura. Quickly putting two-and-two together (although she couldn't do anything when in danger of being crushed), her eyes widened as she shouted, "_You're_ the man with the mysterious powers! _You_ turned down the Gym offer!" _I can't believe he was the guy I was looking for all along! And he didn't say anything?_

It seemed like he wanted to say something, but instead he only focused on taking the rocks and throwing them far away from them, falling with heavy _thuds_ that made her heart flutter at the thought of what they could have done to her. Taking a few deeps breaths as if to calm himself after using such power, he looked down at her and smiled. "Surprised?"

"A-A bit!" Her face red from anger (and embarrassment), she pointed at him and accused, "You kept it a secret! You _lied_ to me!" She didn't like people lying to her; it was a dark and selfish thing to do, as far as she was concerned.

Riley only shook his head with a soft chuckle. "Marley," he said calmly, "if I told you right off the bat that I was that man, would you have believed me?"

". . . after a show like _that,_" she gestured to the rocks he had tossed, "I would have!"

"Yes, but you wouldn't respect me, now would you?" He smiled knowingly, telling her, "You would have only wanted to see it, be amazed for a bit, and then leave." His face fell at the thought, and he put a hand on his hip (again, manly-like–it's _definitely _the hat) and looked away, mumbling, "I don't get many visitors like yourself . . . only cocky trainers who think they have what it takes to become Masters."

She wanted to say something mean to him, still a bit irked that he had lied, but she found that staring at the look on his face resolved that she wouldn't dare make him any sadder. Realizing that he had once again complimented her training skills as well, she gulped to clear the lump from her throat before asking him, "So, you were lonely?" It seemed that, even with the power of Aura, Lucario as a friend and owning all of Iron Island, he had still wanted companionship, which explained why he followed her throughout the cave. Was that why he was so kind all of this time?

He nodded, glancing back at her while his Pokemon watched them both in interest. "I'm sorry to have lied to you," he apologized. "If you go that way and continue to the lift, you will find an exit to the cave."

With this information in mind, she gave a sigh of relief at the idea of finally getting out of there, but she looked at his blue eyes (both the color and depressed–haha, see what I did there?) and found she was reluctant to leave him alone. _He'd probably wallow in his own self-pity until someone comes in._ Thinking about any possibly important things that she had to do once outside, she came to a decision as she nodded and told him, "Thank you, for guiding and saving me–for everything." Her voice wasn't sour or harsh this time, but sincere.

He seemed content with her response, for he nodded and smiled warmly at her. "No. Thank _you._" He turned to his companion and instructed, "Let's go, Lucario." It nodded and turned, running to the lift ahead of its trainer who instead went at a more casual pace, turning his head once to look back at her. She let herself smile at the sight before turning to the exit and running off, determined to get her errands done.

_I wasn't the best runner on track team for nothing!_

* * *

Now holding three pokeballs and equipped with many more items than before, she looked at the horizon as the boat quickly approached Iron Island. The sun was going to set soon, so she wanted to find Riley before it got too dark. Once they reached the shore, she thanked the sailor (who was glad she did so, considering she scowled at him the first time) before stepping onto the dock and looking up at the sheer cliffs all around. Only a flight of stairs was there to allow trainers up to the entrance to the cave, and so she ran up them two at a time to not waste precious seconds with walking.

Before she reached the cave, though, she came across the house that she had seen the first time she came here, and she slowed her pace until she stood before it as she stared at the curtain-covered windows intently. For some reason, she felt like there was something important inside of it, and she found that her feet carried her before the front door as she listened for any life inside. Hearing the floorboards creaking slightly, she raised her hand and knocked softly twice, a small hope lighting up inside. When nothing but silence came from behind the door, she waited a few seconds before turning the knob and stepping inside.

Everything inside looked like it had recently been used, but it seemed there was no one there and the lights were off. She looked around the room, eyeing the comfy chairs and the even cozier bed with envy, and asked quietly, "Hello? Riley, are you there?"

"Hey."

She jumped and whirled around, seeing the man standing behind her with a playful grin, and she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart as she scolded him, "You almost gave me a heart attack! Did you Teleport with Aura or something?!"

"Actually," he told her, chuckling warmly, "I used the back door to come around and surprise you. Sorry if I scared you." He then stepped in and closed the door behind him, flicking the switch to light up the place and placing his hat onto the rack beside it. It was a bit strange seeing him without it, but it didn't make him any less handsome. (God, you know I had to say that)

"Isn't "surprising" and "scaring" almost the same thing?" She would have normally thought that to herself, but it seemed that he made her more relaxed now after getting used to his kind behavior.

"It depends on how you look at it." He then went to the little kitchen the house had, the smell of hot tea filling her nostrils, and she inhaled and sighed happily at the scent. "Do you like tea?"

"Very much so," she replied, then following him in to ask curiously, "Where's Lucario?"

"It's out removing the explosives from the wall." He handed her a mug, warning, "Careful, it's hot." He then continued, "And if I didn't know any better, I'd think it was trying to get into that tiny tunnel." They walked out to sit in the soft chairs, and he mumbled as he sipped from his mug, "I'd like to know what was so important to it behind that wall . . ."

"Can't you go and look yourself?" She held the warm mug in her hands, waiting for it to cool more, as she stared at his relaxed yet pondering stature. "You can use the Aura just like it, right?"

He smiled in return, expression warm at her innocent question. "I would, but I feel that it's something best left alone. I may be curious, but sometimes the questions are much more rewarding then the answers."

She frowned. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Yes it does." He grinned. "Just sleep on it, it'll come to you."

She rolled her eyes at his confidence and said, "Okay, yeah, sure. It's a wonder I keep on coming back here to listen to you babble."

He sighed, a look of content and happiness on his face as he closed his eyes and sat back in his chair to relax. "Yes . . . it really is."

* * *

**Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ('Dragon Lover')**


	10. BlueLeaf, Touching Part I

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings–this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: ConflictingShipping - Blue (game) & Leaf**

**Another long and serious-ish one, written after replaying a bit of FireRed. Teehee? This is now my OTP. If you write anything with this pairing, or have read well-written stories with it, please tell me in your review. Enjoy!**

* * *

Touching

_Part I_

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With a huff, the fawn-haired man stepped into the popular yet quiet café, eyes narrowed as he tried to escape the heat of a Kanto summer. Deciding to simply get himself a cold drink and be on his way, he was dismayed to find a line formed at the counter, and only after thinking of how parched he was did he decide to stand in the very back. It progressed very slowly, and he rolled his eyes before examining the customers before him. Most were in their twenties, probably prosperous and known by name by the employees, but some were more around his age, and one in particular he recognized as soon as he laid eyes on her.

It had been nearly six years since she had first beaten him and then claimed the title of Kanto's Champion, and now here Leaf was, standing in front of him in line for her mocha.

He almost couldn't believe his eyes, and he had to frown and blink several times before he admitted to himself that yes, she was there. _What is she doing here, of all places?_ Then again, she was drawn to the atmosphere of restaurants and diners, mostly because of the aromas the food gave off, so perhaps he shouldn't be surprised. It was more appropriate to ask why she happened to be there the one time _he_ stepped into the place. Was it Fate teasing him? He didn't know. It was possible.

He hesitated for only a moment, deciding it wouldn't hurt to at least say "hello"–after all, she'd kill him if she found out he didn't do so when he had the chance. He tapped lightly on her shoulder, putting on his trademark cocky grin that he knew she hated and loved, and relished the look of shock she wore when she saw him standing behind her in line.

"Blue?"

He nodded, saying casually, "'Sup, Leaf?" His "cool act" was in place but was shattered when she suddenly threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as she laughed ecstatically at his appearance. They received a few odd and dirty looks, and he cleared his throat and awkwardly patted her on the back before pushing her away in embarrassment. "Come on, now!" He mumbled as his gaze flicked around the room, "Don't make me look like an idiot!"

"Oh, lighten up, Blue," she teased with a mischievous wink, and she left a hand on his shoulder as she cheerfully told the cashier her order. The contact was uncomfortable to him, and he raised a hand to push hers away before sighing and letting it go. This was mostly how she communicated with people, using gestures and embraces to get her point across, and he couldn't expect her to ever change that. Waiting impatiently for her to drop her arm, she only did so after examining the menu thoroughly, adding a muffin to her order, and turning back to him with an energetic smile. "It's been so long! What'cha been up to?"

He didn't answer until he had made his order and chosen a spot to sit with her, and even then it was accompanied by a reluctant sigh. "Well . . . I've been training Blastoise and the others at Seafoam Islands . . . as well as looking for that mythical bird." He scowled when she, as he predicted, rolled her eyes at him. "There are official sightings of it–you can't say it doesn't exist!"

"They were "sightings" made by half-delirious travelers who had been lost in the caves for days." The skeptic gleam in her brown eyes only softened after noticing his serious expression, and she sighed apologetically. "I'm sorry, Blue, I know how important this is to you. It's just . . ."

"No," he muttered callously, bitter remembrance creeping into his tone. Many years ago, they had had this same argument; it was another thing he supposed would never change. "I understand. You don't believe in fairytales."

"Well, they're legends, not fairytales," she piped up, trying to cheer him up with a little light humor. "And obviously, they had to be based on _something_ . . . I just . . ." She crossed her arms, frowning as she tried to put her jumbled thoughts into a coherent explanation. "I guess I grew tired of the "what ifs" and decided to believe in what I see and feel. You know, the scientific facts?"

"But they have been seen," he argued, "and I can _feel_ it. They _do_ exist." But of course, he knew she would never see it his way, and he sighed as he began to grow weary of conversation. "Can we just talk about something else?"

"Sure! Um . . ." Desperate to bring back his arrogant demeanor, she told him, "The Elite Four is going to be open to challengers in a little while. Do you wanna try . . . ?"

What she was referring to was the routine that had developed over the past few years. Ever since she had first grabbed the title of Champion from him, Blue had worked for months trying to perfect his strategy and take it back. Although his first attempt failed, he actually won the second time, and so they began to battle every month in an attempt to take the title from the other. Every time they did, they'd just barely beat the other, and one of these days Blue was expecting them to come to a draw.

He frowned in contemplation, thinking of how close he had been to catching the legendary Pokemon in Seafoam Islands, and hesitated. "Well . . . y'see . . ."

Curiosity lit up her face, and she rested her chin on the palms of her hands as she placed her elbows on the table. "What, you've already got a date or something?"

He rolled his eyes at her assumption. "No, I don't have a date. Come on, now, I thought you knew better."

"Mm, I dunno." One arm fell to her lap as she grinned playfully at him. "I might get jealous."

"Go ahead and get jealous." Shaking his head, he explained to her, "I was actually planning on returning to Seafoam Islands to do more research."

"Ooh, see, now I'm _definitely_ jealous." Her bottom lip quivered in a mildly convincing pout, and her expression turned despondent even as he rolled his eyes at her. "You want to spend more time in a _cave_ than with _me._ I'm hurt, honestly. Right–" She sat up straight and placed a hand over her heart. "Here."

"Oh, quit your whining," he scolded her, not amused at her display. "I won't be too long. Two or three weeks, at the most."

"That's because you know you'll miss me." Placing her chin on her palm again, she winked at him and laughed lightheartedly at his sour expression. "If you were in there for a month without me, you wouldn't know what to do!"

"Ha ha, very funny." He didn't sound entertained at the prospect of having to come back to see her after exploring the caves, but his bitter thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly gasped and squealed excitedly, once again startling their neighbors into staring at them. He grimaced and hissed to the brunette, "Shh, what is it now?"

"I just thought of _the best_ idea!" She pointed at him, eagerly bouncing in her seat. "I could go _with_ you, into Seafoam Islands! Wouldn't that be _great?_"

The emotion he had in response to that question could only be described as horror.

"What, are you _nuts?_ All of this time you've made fun of my goals, and now suddenly you want to be a _part_ of them?" The idea of having her accompany him was appalling, and he suddenly wanted to be as far away from her as possible as he moved to get out of his seat. "I'm sorry, Leaf, but I–"

He was startled into flopping back down when one of the workers shouted, "White café mocha and blueberry muffin!" He watched glumly as the brunette jumped up and skipped over to the counter, and he reflected over her idea with a grimace. Spend time? With _her?_ After he had grown a little colder to her, he hadn't spent more than half an hour with her–and now she wanted to spend a few _weeks_ with him? For some reason, that deeply troubled him, and he found he wasn't entirely thirsty anymore even as Leaf returned with his latte in hand. She parked herself in the chair, slid the Styrofoam cup across the table, and watched inquisitively while he slowly grasped it and pulled it closer to the edge.

"You were saying?"

He sighed, not wanting to go through it all again. "I don't think it's a good idea."

She tilted her head cutely, blinking innocently in response to his answer. "And why's that?" She didn't seem to find anything wrong with it, and she even looked a little eager to get on the road again. "It's not like I'm not able to take care of myself in case of danger–and with the League closed right now, I have nothing better to do."

He gritted his teeth at her opposition. "It's not that, Leaf, it's just–"

She interrupted matter-of-factly, "Y'know, it might help you convince me." Smiling when he was stunned into silence, she explained casually, "With the whole legend thing. I believe what I can see, remember?" She began to inspect her nails as if to find miniscule specks of dirt under them. "And, if we happen to find something "extraordinary" in those caves . . ." Letting the sentence hang in the air for a heartbeat, she glanced up at him and grinned lightheartedly. "Besides, even if you _don't_ let me come with you, that doesn't mean I can't just go by myself."

He gave an unhappy groan, figuring she would say that to convince him–and he was even more frustrated by how it actually worked. "Alright, fine! You can come!" He pointed at her firmly, furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to convey how serious he was to her. "But _only_ so I can make sure you don't bring the entire damn island down, because I know you'd somehow manage to do that on your own."

"Excuses, excuses!" The brunette hopped to her feet, grinning cheerfully as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "Now come on, let's get ready to go! Oh, I've got to go get my team ready." Waving hurriedly as she jogged out of the door, she called behind her, "I'll meet you at the Pokemon Center!" She left a lot of disgruntled customers in her wake, and Blue ducked his head when they turned to glance at him now alone at the table.

_I'm going to kill that girl._

* * *

Blue turned to the brunette stretching like a Meowth and asked her, "Are you ready?"

Leaf rubbed the drowsiness from her eyes as she mumbled, "No . . . did we really have to go–_yawn_–this early? I mean, the sun's barely out!" She was still a little peeved he had walked into her room in the Pokemon Center and tossed her out of bed, and she hadn't forgotten his rude comment about her Ponyta- and Rapidash-decorated pajamas. Now dressed in her usual attire, she squinted at the horizon to glare at the sun peeking over the water. "Can't we wait a little?"

"Then we won't be early," was his smart-aleck reply, and he smirked at her indignant huff before taking out a poke ball and calling, "Blastoise! Get ready to swim!" Said water-type gave a cry of its name when it was released, glancing at the two of them in mild amusement before ambling over to the edge of the dock and diving headfirst into the water. When it resurfaced, a look of contentment was on its face, as well as a strange glint of anticipation for the journey ahead. Perhaps it liked to ferry its trainer across?

Yawning once more, Leaf threw her own poke ball and mumbled half-heartedly, "I'm sorry to wake you, Charizard." The red beam shot out once it hit the wooden planks, and out came the mighty Pokemon. The dragon glanced at the horizon in surprise, clearly not expecting its trainer to be up so early, and gave her a questioning growl. Leaf scoffed, jerking a thumb over to Blue getting on Blastoise's back. "Hey, it wasn't _my_ idea, it was _his._"

The fawn-haired boy shouted over his shoulder, "You going to ask if it's hungry next, or can we go?" His Pokemon gave a grunt in agreement, and he patted the tough shell absentmindedly as he watched her stomp her foot in frustration at his comment.

"We can go! Don't let me slow you down!"

"Good." Grabbing a hold of Blastoise's shell, he began to give the okay when a thought occurred to him. At first finding it silly, a grin emerged on his face when he thought over it, and he caved in to his childish idea when he shouted to Leaf, "Hey, do you want to race?"

After a moment of deliberation, the brunette grinned and nodded enthusiastically, seeming awake for the most part. "Sure! Don't cry when I win!" She quickly whistled to Charizard and jumped onto its back before it could lean forward to make it easy for her.

"Heh, not a chance." Gripping the shell until his knuckles started to turn white, he told his Pokemon, "Alright, let's leave her in the dust! Go, Blastoise!"

"Toise!"

And they were off! Blue had to adjust his grip after their initial lurch forward, but he laughed merrily all the same as the race began–he heard Charizard give a competitive roar, and he glanced over his shoulder carefully to watch the dragon lunge into the air with its trainer shrieking in delight. He grinned at the idea of a contest of speed, confident his Pokemon would leave her far behind with ease. _Blastoise has gone up and down waterfalls without breaking a sweat! This'll be too easy._

He found he was overly enjoying himself, whooping and hollering when Blastoise decided to be a daredevil and use the mightier waves as ramps, and a few times they even managed to get close to the two in the sky. Laughter rang across the waves as they all had fun racing, and Blue reminisced shortly of the times he had had fun with Leaf when they were smaller. _I forgot what it was like, to hang out with her. We used to have lots of adventures in the tall grass and trees outside of Pallet Town._ It almost made his anxiety over having her accompany him to the Islands disappear . . . almost. He'd have to keep a close eye on her.

After half an hour of flying and swimming, the two trainers finally arrived at the closest of the Seafoam Islands. Returning Blastoise to its poke ball, with the euphoria of the race (which they had both forgotten about halfway there) dying down, Blue took a deep breath and released it slowly. He felt he had come home. Looking around and pleased that not much had changed, he turned to see Leaf recalling Charizard as she glanced down at the soft sands of the shore. He threw his arms out as wide as he could muster and announced, "Welcome to the Whirl Islands! I'll be your tour guide for your stay, and we hope you enjoyed your trip!"

She giggled at his performance, saying, "No, duh!" Examining their surroundings again, her expression softened to a quiet admiration of the land. "This place _is_ beautiful, I guess. I can understand you wanting to come back here." She stepped lightly on the sand, as if afraid to damage the serenity by leaving big footprints in her wake, and he followed her towards the tree-line as she craned her neck to see everything she could. "So, where's the entrance?"

He smirked and taunted, "Let me show you, Ms. Impatient." Enjoying her exasperated reaction, he whistled a jolly tune as he placed his hands in his pockets coolly, sauntering through the trees on a barely visible path he had already memorized. "Oh, and although it's hard to get lost, I wouldn't doubt your expertise at that, so keep close."

"Oh, hush, it was only _one time._" Her irritated muttering only managed to fuel his mocking smirk, and she crossed her arms and gave an annoyed huff as they trekked through the trees. The grass grew wild and tall, snagging on her baggy socks and causing her to stumble multiple times, and once she staggered into his back with a squeak of surprise. He looked back at her curiously, but all she said was, "Stupid grass."

_More like "stupid socks,"_ he thought, eyeing the ridiculously huge socks with slight amusement. He then jovially pointed out, "How ironic, that the girl named "Leaf" hates grass. And owns a Charizard."

"You're _really_ starting to get on my nerves."

He halted in his tracks, causing her to bump into him yet again, and he turned around to face her seriously in the middle of the trees. "You didn't _have_ to come." His eyes narrowed as she watched his expression, as if waiting for him to shout "psyche!" and have a good laugh about it.

And then, she cheated–she raised an arm and gently placed her hand on his shoulder, a sweet smile on her face as her eyes softened at his remark. He tensed at the touch, inhaling sharply as he immediately felt uncomfortable with her staring at him. He wanted to fidget, but he was afraid to move lest she realized how awkward he felt and teased him about it–or, even worse, used it to her advantage.

"You're right. But, I wanted to."

She finally dropped her arm and started back on the path they had paused, and he gave a shaky sigh of relief as he ran a hand through his hair. How was he going to deal with her for three weeks? It was bad enough she had made him lose control of his cool façade once this morning; he didn't need her to do it again. Taking a deep breath and steeling himself up for possibly the hardest thing he had ever done (including becoming Champion), he fast-walked after her and led her to the entrance of the caves. Clearing his throat, he told her, "Well, here it is. Ladies first." Mock-bowing and gesturing towards the cave, he smirked when he got the predictable huff from her. _Ah, that's better._ He rather liked her more when she distant and irritated.

_Let's keep her that way._

* * *

They had stopped to rest for a bit, sitting cross-legged on the floor, when she asked what he thought was the stupidest question anyone had ever asked in the history of trainers. "Er, where do I sleep?"

"The floor." When she pierced him with an annoyed glare, he snickered a bit before asking her, "What do you mean, where do you sleep? Didn't you bring a sleeping bag?"

The clueless look on her face warned him of her answer before she could give it to him. "Sleeping bag?" Her expression spoke of her forgetfulness rather clearly as her gaze fell to the stone floor.

He groaned and rested the palm of his hand on his forehead. "Leaf . . ." Instead of going on to scold her, however, he got back to his feet with a grunt and went over to his backpack, rummaging through it as he grumbled darkly to himself. After a few minutes of searching and cursing, he finally threw his sleeping bag at her, not bothering to apologize when it hung over her head as he zipped up the pocket. "There. Happy now?"

"Yes, but–" Working her way out from under the sleeping bag, she glanced at it with a frown and asked, "Is this yours?"

"Don't nag on me about it," he said curtly, "just use it." More than a little irritated that she had forgotten something every trainer should remember to bring, he threw his bag onto his shoulders and stood up impatiently. "Come on, we're wasting daylight."

"How can _you_ tell," was her smart retort, and he resisted the urge to honor her with a reply including many colorful words. He only looked back at her to scowl, but that quickly changed to a look of alarm when one of her feet slipped right out from under her, making her shout in fear. He ran over to where she sat on the floor groaning, "Oh, my tailbone . . ."

His tone was slightly fearful as he asked, "Are you alright?" He knelt down and examined her legs quickly, coming to the conclusion that they were fine before going on to her pained expression. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I . . . don't know." She shifted and gave a hiss of discomfort, making him wince sympathetically. "I-I think I slipped on something."

He tried to smirk mockingly at her like he always did, but he could only manage a pitying grimace. "Only you, Leaf. Only you. And you wanted to come in alone?" Placing his hands on her shoulders, he inspected the rest of her just to make absolutely sure she didn't have anything else wrong with her. "You said your tailbone hurt?"

She scoffed, mumbling, "Well, duh! I fell on my butt, of _course_ it hurts!" She changed the topic abruptly when a thought came to mind. "What'd I slip on?"

Blue leaned back, letting go of her shoulders to balance in a crouching position. "I'm not sure . . ." Looking around for a sign of something slippery, he suddenly noticed an odd glinting on the rocky floor and crawled over to examine it more closely. Leaning down until his nose almost touched it, he tapped the clear layer over the floor and realized it was ice. "But why is there ice here? Seel and Dewgong don't normally come out of the water . . . unless . . ."

"What?" Leaf tried to move over to him, but the pain made her stop and scrunch her eyes shut in agony. Taking a few deep breaths, she cleared her throat and asked him, "What'd you find?"

Instead of answering, Blue reached behind him to grab a vial from a pocket in his backpack, chipped away until he got a sizable chunk and scooped the ice into it before placing it back in the pack. Then he stood up and offered a hand to assist her to her feet, looking a little guilty that he had forgotten to do that first. He tensed up when she winced and used him as support for a moment, taking deep but shaky breaths. _Agh. Again, with the touching._ He didn't like having her head resting against his chest; but he decided for once to ignore his lack of comfort, hesitantly placing a hand on her shoulder and asking worriedly, "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

He blamed his erratic heartbeat on the scare she had given him.

She took a deep breath and, to his relief, straightened up to give him a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Just hurts a little." Her expression warm with gratitude, she patted him on the shoulder in thanks before walking stiffly over to pick up the bag she had dropped. Bending over to do so, however, proved to be a problem, as was evident by the squeak she made and the way her back arched.

He swallowed. Hard.

"Ah, here, let me help you." He walked over briskly, nearly slipping on the ice himself, and snatched the bag from the ground for her. When she tried to take it from him, he brought it just out of her reach, giving her a stern look. "Let me carry it." His tone left no room for negotiations.

Aggravated but touched, Leaf rolled her eyes and gave a small, "Whatever." She looked a little miffed that he wasn't letting her carry her own things. He sighed and began to make way once more, but he was stopped yet again by her hand grabbing his arm and turned around irritably to see what she wanted now. She unexpectedly leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, and as his eyes widened in surprise she giggled and winked playfully. "Thank you, Blue."

As she began to go onwards, he stood rooted to the spot as if too shocked to move. His thoughts were a jumbled mess, and his cool act was completely ruined. All of this touching . . . it was making him go crazy. Well, to be specific, all of _her_ touching was; he had been perfectly fine putting a hand on her shoulder, but as soon as she laid a finger on him . . .

"You coming or what?"

Forcing himself to put those things aside, he jogged to catch up to her as he put on an indifferent mask. He tried to ignore the fact that his face turned red every time she accidentally brushed against his arm, and the fact that he couldn't stop thinking about her touching quirk.

And he wasn't even past the first day.

* * *

**. . . No, reader, you're not the only one to be immature while reading the word "touching."**

* * *

Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ("Dragon Lover")


	11. BlueLeaf, Touching Part II

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings–this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today (again): ConflictingShipping - Blue (game) & Leaf**

**The continuation of Part I, obviously. Hope you enjoy it! (As a fun fact, the original name of this two-part story was "Believe," after Blue's struggles to make Leaf believe in the legends.)**

**Oh, and a note to O'possum, although I'll doubt he'll/she'll read this: I didn't tell you to take down your story from FFN. You can keep it up; I just don't want you spamming reviews to pick on romance stories, or any fanfic for that matter. Just try to be more mature next time, alright? This is a community for **all** fanfic-writers and -readers. Let's just enjoy writing, shall we?**

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* * *

**

Touching

_Part II_

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* * *

**

"How's your . . . tailbone?"

Smiling a little at his hesitation, Leaf slowly rolled onto her side to stare at the fawn-haired boy sitting beside her, his back against a rock jutting out of the cave floor. His brown eyes were focused on the ground before him, his legs drawn up so he could rest his elbows on his knees, and he was so lost in thought that he didn't notice her movement. It was a few days after the ice incident, although she said she wouldn't have figured it out if they didn't have watches, and Charizard was out to keep them warm as well as to be a light in the darkness of the cave. Batteries were important to a trainer and needed to be conserved as much as possible. "Better, I guess."

Blue nodded absentmindedly. ". . . Good." His thoughts were a mad swarm of Beedrill, switching from the legendary to Leaf to training to the legendary to Leaf, all of his thoughts tripping over themselves to get his attention. He was having trouble sorting it all out, and so he decided to do it alphabetically–Leaf, legendary, training.

He frowned at the thought of working out Leaf's quirks first. _I mean, alphabetically backwards–_

Training, legendary, Leaf.

_That's better._ He turned his attention to the Pokemon he had on him and in the boxes, calculating which were ready to fight the skilled champion. He also had to figure out what strategy he was going to use, considering Leaf had probably planned herself while she had the free time from the League. She knew most of his Pokemon by now, and although she was absolutely aggravating to deal with, she was a skilled trainer and prepared to fight for the title of Kanto Champion. He had a lot of work ahead of him.

That determination hadn't changed much from her childhood, when she was always trying to beat him in competitions and sometimes succeeding–but of course only because he let her. Leaf used to get frustrated if he won every time, so every so often he'd let her win so she wouldn't feel so bad. Tag and hide-and-seek were his favorites, because he was more athletic and sneaky than she was more than half of the time. He had especially loved sneaking up on her while she hid and scaring the living daylights out of her, although he did receive a wallop or two in return for his cruelty. She had her days, though, where she would pull off some amazing victory that would shock him–much like the day she took the title of Kanto's Champion from him. She had matured a lot in some ways, but in others, she hadn't changed a bit.

After a few minutes of mulling over various combinations of teams, he realized it was much too difficult to figure out when he couldn't look through his boxes, and went on to the next topic: Legendary Pokemon. The creatures he had dreamed of capturing since he was a little boy, when he made up games with Leaf pretending to be the legendary and him playing as the trainer going to catch it. Although those games were long gone, the dream was still there, and he was prepared to go to the ends of the Earth to prove to the world–and to Leaf–that they did exist. All of the times she had teased him, saying he needed to stop living in his childhood and grow up, they would all mean nothing as soon as he proved her wrong. He was determined do to so, and that was why he was in the cave right now, with her. He would show her the truth, and she'd apologize for ever doubting him while he would simply grin and tell her it was alright, that he'd already forgiven her–yes, he already had the entire scenario in his mind, planning everything that was going to happen.

It was only then that he realized the subject he was trying to avoid thinking about the most was leaking into all of his thoughts: Leaf. His eyebrows furrowed as he sighed in exasperation. _That girl's irritating, even without meaning to be. She's always touching me, confusing me, and getting me into all sorts of trouble. Boy, she really hasn't changed._ Pulling his legs closer and crossing his arms on his knees, Blue went on to grab the Tauros by the horns–but jumped when he felt a light touch on his arm. He jerked away slightly as the brunette whispered, "What's wrong?" She sounded a little worried, and he glanced over to see her concerned frown before her chocolate eyes suddenly pierced his for an answer. He inhaled sharply and leaned away a little, unprepared to have her nearly touching him again, but she only leaned forward, furrowing her own eyebrows as she examined his expression.

Not wanting her to read too much into things, he cleared his throat and lied, "I'm fine." Although it was an obvious lie, his tone made it clear that he didn't want to talk about it. She had always respected other people's emotions, if not their personal space, and rarely ever pushed for an answer. He expected her to do the same here, ignoring when her frown deepened as he went back to staring at the rocky floor. He could still feel her presence hovering beside him, and although it unnerved him greatly, he remained silent about it. He wasn't anticipating for her to tap his shoulder again, or for her to jab his side forcefully when he didn't respond. He jumped and glared at her, wishing she wasn't so persistent all of a sudden. "_What?_"

"You're worried about something." Her eyes searched him again, but he refused to look away this time, instead mentally daring her to try to figure him out. After a pause, her expression grew more somber, and she mumbled, "Or irritated . . . at some_one._"

He blinked as his legs slid to lie straight on the ground, confused by what she meant. "Irritated? How?"

She frowned in confusion, appearing to be troubled by his answer. He tilted his head in curiosity, but before he could ask again, she explained, "Well, I _am_ injured and slow, after all. I think that makes me a liability. _That_ certainly wouldn't help your research." She ignored Charizard's rude snort, instead giving him an apologetic smile as she cleared her throat anxiously. "Really, I'm sorry."

Blue was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of guilt as he realized that she thought he was angry to have to take her through the cave, and to deal with her tailbone injury. _Does it really seem like that? Did I somehow make her think that I hate having her around?_ Sure, he didn't like all of the touching, but otherwise, she was a breath of fresh air; he hadn't had a _human_ companion since he had started to be a jerk to her more than six years ago. He didn't want her to think he was mad at her, especially since it wasn't true, and something crazy made him reach an arm up and–dear Mew–around her shoulders, gently pulling her to lean against him. He thought he heard the dragon give a shocked rumble, but he ignored it. She looked just about as surprised as he felt, and he wondered if her heartbeat was as quick as his.

"Leaf, I . . . I didn't mean it to look like I didn't like having you around." Although slightly uncomfortable with the contact between them, he pushed it aside once more to comfort her, knowing that an embrace was just as important as words to her. "In fact, it's nice to have a f-friend, since I haven't hung out with you in years. It's just . . . hard to get used to."

". . . I understand." Her voice was still strangely quiet, and he squeezed her shoulder slightly in encouragement. She glanced at him for a moment, eyes glazed over with nostalgia, and she mumbled, "It _has_ been a while . . . hasn't it?" He nodded wistfully, remembering the times they had played together under their mothers' watchful eyes. She fiddled her thumbs, thinking deeply about something, before she slowly rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. "I wish we could go back and . . ."

"Change it?" When she nodded, her hair brushed against his neck and gave him goose bumps, and he almost lost his train of thought. "To be honest, so do I. I'd . . . change a lot, actually."

"You would?"

"Yeah." His own voice grew softer, as if the reflective atmosphere was making him quiet. "I'd . . . fix everything I messed up."

"Oh, you didn't mess everything up."

"Not everything, but I did." His gaze fell to the floor, a frown materializing out of his dark thoughts. "I wanted to be "cool" and decided that being a "jerk" was how I'd do it. It wasn't the smartest decision, I'll admit, but even _worse_ was that I was a jerk to _you._ After all, throughout everything, you still tried to be nice, but I just wouldn't listen–"

He stopped when her arm snaked around his waist to hug him, and he was silent as he listened to her disappointed sigh. "Y'know, Blue, you really _are_ silly. You didn't mess everything up. You just got . . . sidetracked. But, you're back now, and you've more than made up for anything you might have done. And . . ." She gave a small giggle, nudging his chin slightly with her head. "You never _really_ lost me." As if to emphasize her point, she turned to face him and wrapped her other arm around him, fully hugging him now as she nuzzled him affectionately.

He was so tense he thought his muscles were going to knot up painfully on him and take weeks of massage to be loosened. She was _so close, _touching him _so much_, and his arm was now more or less trapped on her shoulders as he looked at her in confusion. "L-Leaf?" One of her knees rested on his leg, further ensnaring him in an inescapable embrace, and he felt as if Charizard had set him on fire. Said dragon was eyeing them in amusement, trying to cover its laughter at his awkwardness with a few raucous coughs.

After a breath of silence, the brunette blinked and looked as if she had just realized what she was doing. "Oh! I-I'm sorry, Blue, I don't . . ." She let go of him as her face turned an interesting shade of pink, and she retreated to his sleeping bag while mumbling, "Sorry, I'm just tired and . . . didn't think about . . ." She mumbled incoherently a little more as she slipped into the bag, and she rolled over so her back was facing him as she finally finished with a quietly repeated, "Sorry, Blue."

While she was quick to fall asleep, Blue found he had trouble even preparing for it, especially when he felt so cold after being so close to another warm body. A few minutes of driving himself crazy led him to take a quick walk to a stream and splash his face with the icy water in hopes of "waking him up." He stared at his reflection for a while, watching his mirror image as if waiting for it to explain everything, but it remained silent. He glared at it, blaming it for everything, and muttered, "Dammit. It's all _your_ fault. If you just hadn't brought her here, you wouldn't be having these problems with . . . _touching._" He scowled, and when his reflection scowled back he huffed irritably and let his eyes skim across the water to avoid looking into his own confused gaze.

Then, something in his peripheral vision got his attention, and he watched the reflection of something shimmering before his eyes widened in alarm and he jerked his head upward. He caught a glimpse of a whip-like tail going around a turn in the cave, and after a moment of standing there in surprise he threw Blastoise's poke ball down and ordered it, "Let's surf, now!" It didn't question him as he leapt onto its back, and they took off while he kept his eyes peeled for what he had been hoping to find all along: A legendary.

No matter where they searched, though, they could not find a single clue as to where the creature had flown off to–and he was sure it could fly, for nothing else would have been able to elude them so easily, since Blastoise had already swam through the waters and found nothing extraordinary. Exhausted and disappointed, the two turned back and returned to the spot they had left an hour ago, and he glumly returned the water-type to its poke ball and trudged back to their "camp" in a depressed mood. He had come so close . . . _so close . . ._

_Yeah, you were _real _close . . . earlier._

His cheeks coloring pink at the reminder, he flopped onto the ground and sighed, using his pack as a pillow while trying to finally go to sleep. He didn't seem to notice Leaf roll over, or how she examined his frustrated expression closely when his eyes were closed. Soon, he was gone, to a world where Leaf was flying just out of his reach, and he kept running slower and slower . . .

**

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**

A week had gone by, and there was still no sign of that Pokemon he had seen. He was getting frustrated with this, and he was losing much needed sleep trying to figure out where it was. He searched the map he had brought with him fervently, trying to think of where the Pokemon could be hiding, almost walking into a stream once because he wasn't watching where he was going. He was yawning constantly and dozing off whenever they stopped to rest, and after a week of this Leaf decided to do something.

That night, when he started to scrutinize his map again, the paper was suddenly jerked from his grip. Startled, he looked up to see Leaf's stern face as she folded it up and placed it in a pocket of her backpack, and he stuttered, "Wha–Leaf, I–what're you–" He tensed when she grabbed his shirt and helped him stumble to his feet, and he let her lead him over to the sleep sack he had given to her as he tried to figure out what she was trying to pull.

She pinned him with an annoyed glare, placed her palms on his chest and forced him to sit on the sleeping bag. As he stared at her in confusion, she motioned for him to lie on his back. "Sleep."

He sighed, finally realizing what she was doing, and tried to stand up again, starting, "Now, look–"

"No!" She grabbed his shoulders so he remained where he was, and when he scowled at her she ordered, "Stay there, Blue. You need to rest, you've been staying up late way too much!"

"But I need to do some calculations, I've almost–"

"No more work." She knelt before him, anger being replaced with seriousness, and she covered his hands with her own as if to prevent them from working. "You've done enough tonight. It can wait until morning." She gently squeezed them as she nodded in encouragement. "Please."

He matched her gaze with his own solemn one, watching for a change in her expression that would hint to a crack in her resolve–but eventually he just sighed in defeat and dropped it, closing his eyes as exhaustion nearly overwhelmed him. "Fine . . . but . . . I'm so _close._"

"I don't care." She let go of his hands to cup his face, and he could almost hear her smile in her voice. "But I _do_ care about _you._" He could feel her breath on his face, fanning across his cheeks and tickling his chin. He slowly leaned into it, tipping towards her until their foreheads touched and opening his eyes to stare into hers as intensely as his weary self could.

"You do?"

"Yes."

"You promise?"

She smiled at his insisting, as if it brought back memories from their childhood of pinkie promises and kid oaths. "Yes, I promise."

". . . Good." He closed his eyes again, feeling the fatigue slowly taking control of his body as he barely suppressed a yawn. Maybe it was a good thing she was forcing him to sleep after all. "Because I . . . care about you . . . way more than I should. I want to prove it to you so badly . . ."

"I know," she whispered, "I know. This is important to you, so it's important to me. I'll support you all of the way, as long as you take care of yourself." She then sat up straight, steadying him when he nearly fell face first into her lap, and tapped his nose playfully. "Okay? No more staying up."

"No more staying up," he echoed, barely feeling how she gently guided him onto his back and covered him with the sleep sack's cover. _I might actually get used to her touching . . ._ He thought he felt her hands on his chest and her lips on his forehead, but he figured he was already dreaming, and he slowly drifted to a plane where she smiled when he was near but frowned when the legendary he had been chasing flew around her . . .

He woke up groggy the next morning, wanting to go back to sleep but feeling he had something important to do. _Nn, what I'd give for more hours in the night._ For the first time in days, he woke up not cold, but comfortingly warm, and the blanket felt so heavy when he tried to lift it off of him. Or, he _thought_ it was simply the blanket. His hand wandered onto soft flesh and, after pausing in confusion when he realized it wasn't _his_ flesh, gripped what felt to be an arm lying across his torso. His eyes flew open to observe Leaf snuggled up against him, asleep and partially laying on top of the bag–and him. One leg sprawled across him to further trap him–he felt a distinct case of déjà vu–and there was no way he could move out from under her without waking her up. He felt overheated and claustrophobic underneath her.

_Oh . . . God. This is too much._

He caught a glimpse of Charizard's and, strangely enough, Blastoise's smug faces, and after he scowled at their immaturity he worked one arm out from under the covers to try to shake Leaf awake. His face was almost as red as a Charmeleon's as he tried not to think too much about their positions, sternly telling himself, _We're not technically touching, there's a sleeping bag between us . . ._ He was relieved to watch her lift her head slowly, rubbing her eyes to help clear her vision as she gave a mighty yawn. He gulped and muttered, "Are you awake now, Leaf?"

"Yeah, I . . ." Her eyes traveled up to his awkward expression to figure out that he was surprised, and she blushed a little herself before clearing her throat and starting, "I'm assuming you want an, uh, explanation for this." He nodded. "Right. Well, uh, y'see, I was cold last night, and . . . well, there was enough room for you to scoot over, and I . . . yeah." She withdrew from him, greatly decreasing the amount of heat he felt, and stood up to dust herself off as she tried to act casual. "Breakfast?"

The cover of the sleeping bag slipped off of Blue as he propped himself up with his arms behind him, and he watched her dig through her backpack for something to eat as she tried to pretend nothing had happened. After a few minutes of silence had passed between them, he stood up and walked over to place a hand on her shoulder; she tensed in surprise at his touch before she reluctantly straightened up to face him. He gulped nervously, thinking about what he was going to do, before nodding. "Thank you. For last night."

". . . Oh." She swallowed anxiously herself, mumbling softly, "Don't mention it. I just . . . get worried about you sometimes." With their exchange over with, both of the trainers turned away from each other and obtained their own food for breakfast, eating without a word to the other until it was time to go. Even then, she simply asked him, "Ready?" At his nod, they started off on their journey again, followed by their still smirking Pokemon, who entertained themselves by making faces behind their backs.

**

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**

It was coming to the end of their stay in the caves; they'd already been in there for fifteen days, and they had to start on their way back so they'd be able to leave on time. Leaf had the League to worry about, and Blue planned to be one of the first challengers so he had to hurry as well. He did so reluctantly, however, and as each night seemed to come too fast he gave a disheartened sigh before retreating to one side of the sleeping bag.

Strangely enough, during the last stretch of the trip, they started a system where they could both get to sleep on it together; he would take one side of the pretty wide sleep sack, and she'd take the other, while they'd switch who'd be under the cover and who'd be on top of it every night. Of course, they never slept underneath or over it together–that'd be too weird–and they tried to keep as much distance between each other without getting off of the sleep sack. However, whenever morning would come, they were always embarrassed to find themselves cuddling and had to silence their Pokemon's roaring laughter by returning them to their poke balls. They never escaped the mornings without blushes on their faces.

It was day nineteen when they were almost to the entrance again, and they decided to slow down their pace so they had a little more time inside of the caves. That night when they set up camp, Leaf scooted over to sit beside a miserable-looking Blue and touched shoulders with him. "I know you're disappointed, but they're not called "rare Pokemon" for nothing. Of _course_ they're going to be hard to find." Despite her encouragement, he didn't look any happier, so she sighed and nudged him slightly. "Come on, can I see a smile? Even a tiny one?"

"I just wanted a sign," he mumbled instead. "Just _one sign_, so I could _know_ that at least there was a _chance_. But, nothing." His expression spoke of his massive frustration as he tilted his head down to look at the floor. "Only a fleeting glimpse late at night, and it might not have been it _anyways_."

"But, that's more than some people, right?" She leaned forward to try to look at his face, but his bangs got in the way. "Some people have worked all of their lives and haven't seen even _one_ legendary Pokemon. Few people get a glimpse, and even _fewer_ actually have a _sighting._"

"You don't believe." His tone was sour, as if dissatisfied with his failure. "You still don't think the legends are anymore than what they're called. That was my goal, and I've failed to reach it."

"No, you haven't." She turned to face him and placed her hands on his shoulders, shaking him slightly to get his attention. When he lifted his head to look at her, she pursed her lips and thought deeply about her next words. "You're so passionate about your research, it's a little hard _not_ to get into it. Your dedication has opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn't thought of before, and . . ."

She trailed off, her gaze drifting over his shoulder as something caught her eye. When she remained quiet for a long period of time, Blue shifted slightly and tried to locate what she was looking at. "What is it? What's wrong?"

She pointed behind him, a curious frown on her face. "What's _that?_" They both scrambled to their feet and jogged over to the glinting she had seen on the ground, and she bent down to pick it up carefully and gave it to him for examination. He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing the shiny object, before his jaw fell open.

"It's . . . a feather."

Indeed, it was; the soft feather was azure in color yet surprisingly sharp on its edges, and it was as long as his forearm and a little bit wider. It was highly flexible, and as he played with it a little it sparkled beautifully and reflected tiny pinpricks of light onto the rock surrounding them. That gave him an idea, and he handed it over to her momentarily before rummaging through his backpack and finding the vial with the rock and ice he had collected what felt like forever ago. The chilling atmosphere of the cave had kept it in its solid form, and he compared the sparkling of the two before a boyish grin overcame him.

"It's just what I thought. Whatever this feather came from . . . made this ice. See how the feather's iced over a bit?" He demonstrated it to her, pointing out the identical sparkling and laughing merrily. "That's why it's so sharp and cold! There aren't any normal kinds of bird Pokemon in this cave, but . . . !" He handed the vial to her as well and pulled out an ancient-looking book from his backpack, hastily flipping through the pages until he found a picture of what he was looking for, placing a fingertip on it. "_That_ is said to live here!"

She leaned forward and read aloud, " "Articuno, the freeze Pokemon. A legendary bird Pokemon said to appear to doomed people who are lost in icy mountains. The magnificent seemingly translucent wings of this legendary bird Pokemon are said to be made of ice." " She glanced from the book to the feather several times before her eyes widened in realization. "You mean . . ."

"Yep." He grinned, looking wholly satisfied at their discovery. "Unless there's some other blue-feathered bird Pokemon native to Kanto that I don't know about, this . . . is Articuno's feather." His brown eyes shone with an overload of happiness, and he spun her around in the air as they both laughed ecstatically at the news. "I was right, Leaf! There _are_ legendary Pokemon! I _knew_ it!"

"You _were_ right!" When he set her down, she suddenly leapt forward to embrace him and truly kissed him, and after a moment of indecision he hugged her fiercely and returned the kiss. Ignoring their Pokemon's whoops and hollers, the kiss lasted for more than ten seconds, enough to make them forget about the items they held until they nearly dropped them. Smiling sheepishly and placing the things on the ground, Leaf went back to embrace him tightly and gave a content sigh. "You did it, Blue. I'm so _proud_ of you."

He shook slightly from all of the excitement, and he mumbled into her hair, "I'm just glad I was able to share it with you."

"Oh, you romantic." She giggled and pulled away from him slightly, looking up into his face with a warm smile. "Remind me to never doubt you again."

"That's right," he grinned arrogantly, "you shouldn't!"

She laughed and shoved him slightly. "_Blue!_"

As they chatted about the possibilities of legendaries all around Kanto, they failed to notice the two Pokemon standing together, Charizard grumbling dark things to itself. Blastoise smirked and motioned with a hand, and reluctantly the dragon held out a claw gripping a few TMs and an Oran berry–both of which were difficult for a Pokemon to find without assistance from its trainer. As the turtle gladly took the items from the loser of the bet, Charizard growled a warning to it, probably along the lines of "be careful with that" and "don't get _too_ cocky."

Blastoise shrugged, popping the berry into its mouth and flipping the TMs like it would a deck of cards, and its voice became almost sing-song-like to taunt the dragon. Charizard snarled a furious response.

After the two humans and their Pokemon left the cave, a shimmering reflection on the pool's surface appeared to observe the entrance in curiosity. Standing as tall as Charizard and with an equally impressive wingspan, the azure-feathered Pokemon seemed to be a guardian of the Seafoam Islands protecting its people from invaders. Its expression looked content, however, and it preened a spot on its side that was losing feathers before turning and taking flight to patrol the rest of the caves. It would be ready for the next time the fawn-haired human entered the caves; the young male seemed worthy enough to test his might against the power of legends. Articuno was looking forward to it.

**

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**Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),**  
**~DL ("Dragon Lover")**


	12. SilverLyra, Sing Good

_Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings–this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: **BlackSoulShipping – Silver & Lyra

**Trivia: The idea for this chapter, hilariously, came about from listening to "Bringin' da Noise" by NSYNC and imagining Blue and the other rivals of the mainstream games dancing and singing to it. I don't know exactly what I was on, but it was hilarious all the same. And this **might** have just been an excuse to write corny lyrics . . . *wink***

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Sing Good

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**

This was the last time he was ever going to listen to Gold.

"This is the _stupidest_ thing you've ever had me do," he informed the reigning champion as they stood backstage with the other guys. "Even more idiotic than the time you set me on _fire._"

"But ninjas can't catch you when you're on fire!" As the redhead began to protest, Gold held up a hand and added, "And you never know when you're going to be attacked by ninjas. They're _ninjas!_ There's even a ninja in the Elite Four!" Ignoring the sour look on his friend's face, he took a quick peek at the audience waiting patiently in their seats. "Look, it's _your_ fault you're doing this, anyways; if you weren't so prone to singing while cooking, and singing _good _for that matter, I wouldn't have volunteered you for doing this!"

"How does that make it _my_–"

"Sh!" The energetic blond, Pearl, held up a finger to silence the two arguing with each other, whispering, "They're announcing us right now!"

"And next in our show is a group of talented trainers who also happen to be talented singers! Please welcome CHAMPS to the stage!" The audience roared with applause, which was their cue to take the stage–Silver, Gold, Pearl, Diamond and Blue walked onto the stage, working the crowd to cheer even louder before they took their positions and began their performance.

_I'm going to kill Gold after this,_ Silver decided before he took the lead in the opening song. "_Don't go breaking my heart, baby, because I've set my sights on you._"

"_You've no idea,_" Pearl jumped in, his voice a bit milder than the redhead's,"_what crazy things your smile makes me do._"

"_I'll always be there to pull you through,_" they all sang in unison,"_'cause I've set my sights on you!_" The girls screamed in excitement as the band of popular guys went on through several badly written songs, and the young female-filled audience gladly ate it up until they were finished and bowed before gracefully exiting the stage and returning behind the curtains to wipe the sweat off of their brows.

"Whoo!" Pearl pumped his fist in elation, shouting, "We kicked _ass!_"

"Those lyrics _sucked,_" Silver growled, pinning Gold with a glare. "I'm guessing _you_ wrote them?" A nod. "No wonder they're crap."

"Hey! I worked hard on those songs!"

"Those were as well-written as a third grade assignment."

"Uh, guys," Blue jerked a thumb behind him, asking curiously, "is there supposed to be a fan walking around backstage?"

"Hm? Oh," Gold waved a hand indifferently, "that's just our friend Lyra. Hey, Silver, it's Lyra!" Alarmed, the redhead glanced around and found the mushroom-cap-shaped hat weaving between props to get to the boy band relaxing backstage, and he covered his face with his palm in embarrassment.

"Please don't tell me she saw that."

"She saw us."

"You're an ass, Blue."

"Great job, guys!" The bouncy brunette clapped her hands together, looking just as excited after their performance as Pearl did. "And I didn't know you could sing, Silver."

He scowled at the devious look Gold gave him and elbowed him in the stomach. "Shut up! I was _forced_ to do this, okay?"

"Geez, take a compliment." She rolled her eyes at his sour attitude, something that hadn't really changed even after he had become their friend–or, they became his friends. Whatever. "I'm just saying you could make a career out of it."

Silver grew horrified at the thoughtful look on Gold's face, and he quickly protested, "But I don't want to! The _last_ thing I want to do is continue singing these ridiculous songs with _this_ idiot!" When it looked like the dark-haired teen was going to suggest something, he quickly told him, "_No._ Whatever it is, _hell_ no. The last time I said "yes," I–I was talked into doing _this!_"

Gold's hopeful face fell into a pout. "But, you're _good._"

"Yeah, and you're an idiot. Your point?"

"Guys, guys!" Pearl stepped between them to prevent the redhead from punching the frown off of his "friend's" face. "Come on, let's go get some pizza or something. Wanna come, Lyra?"

"_No,_" Silver commanded.

"Sure!"

The redhead groaned, rubbing his temples to try to ward away the oncoming migraine the stress was creating. "F. M. L. . . ." He lagged behind the rest of the group, dragging his feet as he waited for something even worse to happen–and, lo and behold, he was rewarded when the brunette noticed his bitter expression and decided to try to cheer him up by walking beside him and trying to draw him into conversation.

"So, did you _always_ sing good?"

He gritted his teeth. "Yeah, but I don't really _care_ if I can "sing good." If I hadn't had that stupid song stuck in my head a month ago, Gold would've never found out and I wouldn't have been dragged across the region to sing stupid songs." When she giggled at his irritation, he narrowed his eyes and growled, "Hey, it's not funny! Did you even _listen_ to half of the words we said? I need to wash my mouth out with soap!" He knew that, if he was forced to do this again, he was going to write his own material so he didn't have to be embarrassed when he went to do the show.

"I know, they were horrible," she admitted, "but it was just funny watching your serious face throughout those sappy songs. Can't you _pretend_ to enjoy it?" At his disgusted scowl, she laughed again and patted him on the back. "Okay, I guess not. But just so you know, chicks dig boy bands."

"Do I look like I care?" She shook her head, and then his curiosity caused him to add, "Do _you_ count as one of those chicks?"

"Mm, maybe." She glanced at him with an eyebrow raised, her own interest peaked. "Why do you ask?"

He glanced away with an indifferent shrug, mumbling, "Because then I might care." He was pleased when she stopped in her tracks, shock evident in her slack jaw, and then she jogged to catch up with them as she remained silent after his bold comment. Utter confusion rolled off of her in waves, and eventually he turned to her and added, "I might even stick around for a few more stupid performances with Gold."

The dark-haired trainer perked up and looked over his shoulder, asking, "Did someone call me?" The redhead waved his attention away with a mumbled "moron," causing Lyra to giggle and Gold to raise an eyebrow suspiciously. Silver scowled even as his face turned red in awkwardness, and the cause of his misery simply grinned before elbowing Pearl and whispering conspiratorially into his ear. Both of them glanced behind them with wide grins on their faces, and the leader of the group called to Silver, "Hey, why don't you two just hold hands? It's okay, we don't mind."

Casting them a glare, the redhead snapped back, "And why don't _you_ two hold hands? I won't say a word." Smirking at their disappointed grumbles, he tried to let the comment fade from his mind as the brunette watched him out of the corner of her eye. Several heartbeats later, the silence was broken by a startled grunt when Lyra's hand brushed against his. "Ack! What're you–"

"They said they don't mind, right?" Now it was his turn to stare at her with his mouth open in surprise. She smiled cheekily and made a grab for his hand again, brightening triumphantly when he didn't pull away. "Now we've just gotta convince them to do the same." She was rewarded with his amused snort, and they shared a moment of embarrassment when Diamond glanced back and caught sight of them holding hands. He didn't say anything, though, and only nodded in approval before starting a conversation with Blue. She squeezed his hand lightly. ". . . So, how many performances are you gonna stick around for?"

Silver grinned and gently returned the pressure. "As many as you go to."

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Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),

~DL ("Dragon Lover")


	13. SaturnMars, Lotion

_Author's Note: I am not being malicious towards any of these characters or pairings – this is just a parody, meaning FOR FUN. Geez, no flames, okay?_

**Pairing for today: Saturn/Mars, Conjuctionshipping**

**Another Author's Note: I started this one, like, forever ago but never finished it, so the style might change drastically after the first section. Just wanted to warn you.**

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**Lotion  
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* * *

"Mars," the navy-haired commander rubbed his temples to try to alleviate his migraine as he spoke into the radio, "what exactly are you doing?" He was hoping it wasn't what he thought she was doing, but unfortunately his hopes died with the first three words that came out of her mouth.

"_Battling the brat, that's what!_" Her temper was obviously flaring as she yelled into the receiver, causing him to coolly hold it away from his ear to avoid losing his hearing. "_If she wants a fight, that's what she's gonna get!_" She had been stationed just outside of Floaroma Town to extract energy from the Windworks there, but it seemed someone was trying to stop her–a little girl, by the sounds of it. Commander Saturn waited a moment to be sure she wouldn't start to yell again before putting the radio back to his ear.

"But Mars," he objected, "the point of being there is _not_ to pick a fight with every little girl who barges into the building. Just hold your ground while–"

"_No!_" He heard her release a Pokemon from its pokeball, and she told him, "_She insulted Team Galactic and all that it stands for! I can't let her get away with that!_"

"You _will_ obey your orders–"

"_To protect the operation!_"

He sighed, knowing she wouldn't stop no matter what he said because she thought she was right, and he told her sternly, "Alright, but if she beats you, I have the right to laugh at you." He was going to be sure to tell Cyrus that she had ignored him, if only to keep himself out of trouble.

"_Ha, you won't get the chance!_"

A few hours later, sitting in the work room with a mug of coffee, Saturn heard someone calling him and finished the line he was on with a flick of his pen before stopping to see who it was. He looked up from his desk where he was filling out paperwork to see the redhead creep into the room, holding huge stacks of paper that looked precariously perched on her trembling arms. It was an accident waiting to happen. He sighed and stood up, already knowing Mars was going to drop them without his help, and as he grabbed some of them from her, she poked her head around the mountain of papers to look at him. "Thanks," she told him, "I didn't think I could carry all of these much farther!"

"And yet you could get them far enough to get me to help you," he mumbled, making sure none of the papers were bent or rolled up before walking with her to her desk in the corner. He ignored her sticking her tongue out at him as he put them down carefully, and he asked, "These are all yours?"

"Yeah." She sighed. "After getting beat up back at the Windworks, I was punished with a lot of paperwork." Saturn snorted and tried to stifle the chuckle that threatened to come out, and she stomped her foot and shouted, "What's so funny? Stop grinning!" He shook his head and looked away to hide his smile, but she moved around to glare up at his face. "_Stop,_ Saturn!"

"I told you," he said smugly, "I was allowed to laugh if you messed up." He smirked as she just crossed her arms and grumbled in response, and then he adjusted the papers on the desk before returning to his own. He heard her sigh and sit down, further fueling his grin, and then when her pen touched paper he continued with his work.

Finishing all of the papers and reports on his desk thirty minutes after, he put them neatly into a tray, placed his pen inside a drawer, and got up from his chair to see that Mars was still working. The papers were a bit less organized than his, with some about to fall off of the edge of her desk, and he walked over just in time to catch a pile she accidentally shoved while putting another stack into a spot. She looked up at him and smiled nervously, and he shook his head and told her, "Here, give me some of these. I'd rather do them then have you mess them all up."

"Really?" She beamed up at him as he grabbed a few piles, and then she jumped up and leaned across the table to give him a hug, effectively causing him to drop all of the papers he had. She then let go and smiled sheepishly, telling him, "Thanks a lot!"

He sighed, wondering why he was nice to her when she was so irritating, and went to pick up the papers, and Mars came around to help after considering the fact that she had been the cause of the mess. Once, they went to grab the same paper and their hands touched, but Saturn quickly retracted his to let her have it instead, momentarily staring at her before continuing. He ducked his head and swiped up the papers closest to him, and when he raised his head and offered a hand for the rest of them he found she was staring at him curiously, her head tilted cutely to the side. He stared back and blinked, and then she seemed to shake it away before tidying her pile and handing it to him. "Really, thanks."

"No problem," he mumbled, and he stared at the papers as he brought them to his desk and started working on them, working as diligently and neatly as always. He paused when he raised a hand to scratch his nose to smell something oddly sweet, and he took a moment to inhale deeply and realize it came from his hand. Frowning in thought, he glanced across the room just in time to see Mars stash her pink bottle into the lower drawer and rub her hands together. His mouth quirked slightly, and he sniffed his hand again and confirmed it was the faint scent pecha berry lotion that had rubbed off on him. Strangely, he didn't mind; it brightened the stuffy and overworked atmosphere and caused him to smile every time he used his hand to brush away an irritating lock of hair or vanquish another insufferable itch.

* * *

Saturn wasn't immature enough to deny something that was entirely too obvious to ignore–that was more of Mars' area of expertise. So when Jupiter asked him a very personal question she clearly knew the answer to, he only hesitated for a moment.

"Do you like that little redhead, Saturn?"

He refused to face her as he focused on the control panel before him, but he did glance over momentarily before punching in a command and muttering, "Let's say I do. What would your response be?" He knew of the pink-haired girl's dislike of the younger commander–it was obvious by the way she talked about her–but he wasn't sure where that would leave him after he answered her question. Several times he had had to withstand either of the girls' rants about the other, simply nodding his head and giving the occasional "I see" to pretend he was listening as he really tried to figure out how they were able to talk for so long without breathing.

"Oh, I think anyone would notice the little looks you give her whenever you think nobody's watching." Smirking at his irritated grumble, she pulled something out from behind her back and continued, "And look at what I found hiding in your desk!"

He glanced over and blanched at the pink bottle she held, and he went to snatch for it only to find she danced just out of his reach. He growled through gritted teeth, "You were going through my things?"

"Because Mars kept on whining about how she "didn't know where she put it" and "it was right here a second ago!" and all, and _only_ because it was in the lone drawer that was locked." Before he could ask how she got into it, she tossed him his keys with an impish grin and enjoyed his groan of dismay. "By the way, nice photo album you have there. You were quite the cutie in high school."

He scoffed and pocketed his keys before turning back to the controls and levers he had to keep an eye on. "What's your point, Jupiter? You wouldn't bring it up unless it was interesting to you."

She put a hand over her heart in mock-hurt. "Oh, what, I can't just ask out of curiosity, without any ulterior motives?"

"No, you can't. It's not physically possible for you."

"Psh. "Ye of little fath." " She placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, which he immediately shook off with a grunt. "I'm just teasing you. You can date the brat, for all I care. Maybe your coolness will rub off on her and she'll be less annoying." When he gave her a sour glare, she held up her hands defensively with a grin, laughing, "Oi, calm down, Saturn! I was only joking. So _defensive._ You must _really_ like her."

"I'm going to sick my Toxicroak on you in a moment," he grumbled as he flicked a switch, eyes trained on the energy levels of the machine but mind distant as he thought of the possible things Jupiter could do to mess with him now that she had confirmed her suspicions. Several possibilities floated through his thoughts, each worse than the last, and he gripped the control panel so hard his knuckles turned white. He barely acknowledged the _swoosh_ of the door opening behind him, but he straightened up with a start when the commander beside him gasped a soft "speak of the devil" and walked away from him. _Oh Jesus no._

"Mars! How nice of you to join us." He cursed his luck before putting on an indifferent façade and turning around to nod at the redhead in greeting. She was just as energetic and bouncy as ever, but her eyes were dim with frustration as her eyes searched the room for something, and he realized too late that what she was looking for was sitting on the panel beside him where Jupiter had left it. He moved too late to block it from view, and her excited gasp was a second behind her eyes brightening in recognition as she ran over to grab it. Jupiter laughed at the display and told her, "Saturn was the one who found it. You should thank him." He gave her a confused glance only to see her dark amusement, and his face morphed into a scowl before Mars pulled his attention to her hand on his arm.

"Oh, thank you, Saturn! I thought I accidentally threw it away or something." She let go off his arm to take a dollop of the lotion into her palm, and then paused before tilting her head in curiosity as she always did. "Do you want some? It moisturizes your hands and makes them smell nice." He shook his head and went to refuse her when she pressed, "Come on, it's pecha berry!"

Rolling his eyes at her interruption, he conceded and held out his hand with a reluctant, "Fine." He expected her to squirt some of the lotion into his palm, but instead she reached with her hand and wrapped them around his to transfer the bit she already had. He inhaled sharply in surprise as his face heated up, and he ignored Jupiter's snickering as the redhead massaged the lotion into both of their hands, ultimately reducing the amount she had to use for the both of them. Doing the same with his other hand, she pulled back and gave him a cheery smile, and he raised one of them to his nose and couldn't help the grin that came across his face at the stronger scent of pecha berry it now gave off.

God, he loved lotion.

* * *

**Lots of dragon-y love (and cookies!),  
~DL ("Dragon Lover")**


End file.
